Amherst beats Liberty, 3-1

The Amherst Lancers boy’s soccer team took on the Liberty Minutemen on Friday in a Seminole District match-up.

When the Minutemen and Lancers meet on the soccer field, it is usually a physical match and this one didn’t disappoint.

The Minutemen threatened first in the fifth minute of the game, as the Minutemen’s Tyler Gilchrist got off a shot that sailed over the top of the net. The Lancers responded and had a few close calls of their own from senior forward Ryan Pigg.

“This was a typical Liberty-Amherst match, we just go right at each other from the first whistle until the last” said Lancer coach Tom McBride.

The Lancers began to mount an attack about midway through the first half. Their persistence paid off in the 23rd minute as Pigg finished off a Matt Payne cross to give the Lancers a 1-0 lead. Six minutes later, Jarred Boone got a head on a Payne cross that gave the Lancers a 2-0 lead going into the half. “I thought we found some offensive rhythm about midway through the first half. Matt Payne, Ryan Pigg, Dylan Nixon, and Jarred Boone just put passes together and took over,” McBride said.

The Minutemen started strongly in the second half. Gilchrist turned up the intensity and a goalkeeper change, that brought Logan Johnson to the offense, proved profitable to the Minutemen. Johnson got a ball in the penalty area and finished it for Liberty.

Amherst had the answer for Liberty’s goal. Senior forward Jon Ascencio passed a great pass from fellow senior Boone and put it in the net for the 3-1 win.

“Jon really came up big,” McBride said. “They were keying on him tonight, he had a man with him everywhere he went. Jon is a great player and great players find a way to get the job done and thankfully Jon did that for us.”

The Lancers are now 7-4-1 with three games remaining in their regular season.