There was the fact that Liberty posted its game-winning goal against the Comets on the school website, but it was a comment made by the Patriots after the game that really stuck.
“They said they owned us,” Comets senior Jack Clark said after netting the lone goal in a 1-0 win that propelled Mason into its first state title game Saturday night at Crew Stadium in Columbus.
The Comets dominated play for most of the 80 minutes, allowing Liberty to get off just one shot on goal, a weak header right to keeper Spencer Parrish in the 71st minute.
Mason, meanwhile, was making its first shot on goal count.
Clark slipped through the defense with the ball, moved left parallel with the goal line and fired a shot back across his body that beat the Patriot keeper to the lower left side for his 30th goal of the season and a 1-0 lead less than two minutes into the game.
“I was so pleased with how we started,” Mason coach Paul Reedy said after his squad improved to 21-0-1. “We put an emphasis on starting at our highest level and we came out clicking. To get a goal that early in a big game is huge.”
Clark, who has grown accustomed to multiple defenders hounding him, was given more room to roam as the Patriots attempted to mark him with just one player.
Clark almost made Liberty pay for that strategy more than once.
In the 52nd minute, Clark made a long run down the middle of the field, cut to the left and rifled a shot from a unbelievable angle near the end line that shook the cross bar on the near side of the net. In the 75th minute, Clark got loose one-on-one again with the keeper, but the keeper made a diving save.
“Last year, they played me straight-up, but this year I had heard they were going to put two on me,” Clark said. “When they didn’t, it gave me some more room than I am used to. I was just trying to get that second goal.”
The boys make it an all-Mason weekend at Crew Stadium. The girls play for the state title Friday night and the boys follow with their chance at 7 p.m. Saturday.
“It is so exciting to be a part of back-to-back nights,” Reedy said. “I think it says so much about the players we have in both programs.”
For Clark, it is one step closer to the vow he made with his classmates when they entered Mason.
“This is incredible. We have been talking about this since our freshman year,” Clark said. “It is amazing … I am getting to go to Crew Stadium for the first time.”
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