Liberty goalkeeper Blake Koski was no worse for the wear by the time the Hurricanes defeated Freedom, 2-0, last Thursday night at BASD Stadium; he was, in fact, beaming.

“It’s unmatchable. You never see this kind of energy anywhere except for football games. You don’t see this in club. You’re playing for something in high school, and that makes it so much different,” Koski said.

And maybe that’s why, for a good seven minutes or so in the second half, Koski took the hits to his chest, at the side of his face, off his fingertips, from everywhere, to preserve a 2-0 Hurricane lead.

“It’s all about positioning, really,” Koski said. “You have to cut down the angles as much as possible. It makes it easy for me when you have four people in the back who will take a bullet for you.”

And there were multiple bullets in what felt like rapid succession: two shots from Bradley Turocy, one shot from Michael Gschrey, and another from Jared Whitehorn. The Patriots were on the attack, and the Hurricanes knew it.

“It was crazy but we aimed to stay composed and clear the ball,” said Liberty defender Peter Schleicher. “It got a little chippy in the box. There were tugs and pulls, but we did our best, and we kept a clean sheet. We definitely came out wanting this one.”

The Hurricanes started the scoring early with a goal to the left corner by Spencer Koski on an assist by Christopher Schray.

“I’m glad we got a goal early because we let Freedom know we weren’t here just to defend,” said Spencer Koski. “Chris put in a good ball. It just went into my hip area. I was a little fortunate to get a clean first touch and then it dropped in front of me. It was going to be really tough for Derek to make that save because I’m that close and it’s coming that fast.”

One goal would not be enough against the undefeated Patriots, but the Hurricanes remained confident at halftime.

“We tried to tidy up our game as clean as possible, and it came to fruition,” said Liberty coach Ian Larimer. “It’s a very big, complex game if you look at it from an outside perspective, but if you’re able to key individuals into playing specific roles and understanding the team dynamic is more important than any individual ... We spoke about being ruthless in our attack and stout defensively.”

In the 13th minute of the second half, Sander Sahaydak scored the Hurricanes’ second goal.

“I think the ball came off poor clearance by the defender. I was just outside the box and hit it. It felt like we put them away,” Sahaydak said. “We decided to drop back more, but we weren’t afraid to keep going up and keep attacking.”

The Hurricane victory was also a victory for winning the EPC Steel Division.

“After we scored the second goal, I felt pretty confident we were going to see this one through,” said Spencer Koski. “We had a good game. We were a little bitter after that first loss to Freedom. We didn’t play our best, so we were looking forward to this game, and we were really happy with the way it went.”