What was supposed to be a 90-minute game, turned into a 180-minute marathon, after Liberty and De Smet battled back-and-forth in the semi-finals of the Champions League Wednesday. 

The Eagles had a record of 3-0 coming out of their champions league group while De Smet was in a close second at 2-1. De Smet got off to an early lead after they scored just 30 seconds into the game. The entire game was pretty balanced in terms of possession and shots on goal. This was a physical game with a total of 54 fouls including six yellows and one red card.

The loss concluded the Eagles run in the Champions League. They were the only public school left in the tournament along with other schools De Smet, St. Dominic, and CBC. Head coach Tony Luedecke was very happy with the team’s performance throughout the entire tournament, battling very tough competition through all the games.

“It was tough giving up a goal in the first minute, but I thought we did a really, really good job fighting back after being down 2-0,” Luedecke said. “I thought our guys showed a lot of fight, a lot of positives, but again when it comes down to the end of the game, it’s a roll of dice with a PK shootout.”

DE SMET 4, LIBERTY 3

FIRST HALF

DHS   Sean Sossou   30 seconds in

DHS   KJ Tyehimba   25 minutes in

LHS   Gavin Moyers (PK)   28 minutes in

SECOND HALF

DHS  Jack Saladin    17 minutes in

LHS  Own goal   25 minutes in

LHS  Ryan Sinclair   35 minutes in

PENALTY SHOOTOUT

LHS   1 0  1  0  0

DHS  1  1  0  1