The Catskill Chronicle

In a scene right out of “Chariots of Fire” Chris Lockwood, Mike
Scherer and Scott Franke lead the Liberty booters in the final leg of a
victory lap around the field.

Story and photos by Ted Waddell

[LIBERTY] – “Soccer gives me my Zen space, it’s the sport I like,” said Mike Scherer, the 17-year old Liberty Indians senior booter who scored the opening goal in his squad’s 2-0 victory over the visiting Comets of Fallsburg in Monday afternoon’s non-league boy’s varsity soccer game. “After that goal, I was really pumped up, and tried not to let anything go by.”

Liberty’s Dillon Cerullo and Juan Ramirez battle Fallsburg booters.

Scherer scored at 12:54 in the first frame on a corner kick off an assist from Ryan Harnish.

In the second half, Liberty’s Tim Burgio beat the opposing keeper at 37:00 off an assist by Harnish.

Speaking of goalies, Fallsburg’s Dustin Foerstch leaped onto the uppermost rail of the cage to make a save, and in the final couple of minutes of the match, Liberty’s Will McGuire reached up for a skyhook to deflect a sure-fire shot into the top of the box by Fallsburg’s Aaron Velasquez.

“I grew up playing goalie, it’s in my blood,” said Foerstch, a 15-year old sophomore, adding that his father was a goalie while in high school. “Some days you make the saves, some days you don’t,” he added.

Liberty’s star goalie Will McGuire.

McGuire, a 16-year old 11th grade keeper, said of his spectacular late innings save, “It felt good…if it scored, it would have brought Fallsburg right back [into the game].”

Mom’s always right.

Seventeen-year old senior Burgio, said when he was five years old, his mother got him interested in the game of soccer. “She got me into it, and I fell in love with it,” he said. “We worked hard, and it was a good win.”

 

Liberty’s Ben Grisafe puts in some serious airtime on a header.

Zac Jonas, 17, a senior booter for the Comets, expressed his take on the season and the game. “I think we’ll do all right…it’s intense, the whole thing.” Darren Kenney, coach of the Comets (1-3), summed up the game. “It’s not the worst case scenario, but it was definitely a rival game we would have liked to win…I thought our effort was there and the guys were playing really hard…[but] our positioning and touch was just a tab off today.”

For Kenney, the match was in black and white.

“Every loose ball, there was a white jersey instead off a black jersey,” he said. “We didn’t have a lot of chances in the box, and when we did we didn’t convert them.”

Fallsburg’s Austin Halchak goes head to head with Liberty’s Sam Didinsky.

Debora A. Simpson, coach of Liberty’s boy’s varsity soccer team (2-1-1), said of the match, “It was a good game…we had a couple of lapses in the first half, but no let downs in the second half…we kept our intensity up, kept attacking their goal, and we did what we had to do.”

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