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By Dana Harding
Tall versus short; goalkeeper versus forward; senior versus sophomore.
While the Mantel sisters from Mountain View-Birch Tree Liberty have their differences, both now share a similar label.
District champions.
Liberty downed Fair Grove 3-0 Thursday afternoon to capture the Class 1 District 6 championship, and both Jaci and Amanda Mantel played key roles in the victory.
The red Lady Eagles came out with an aggressive game plan from the opening kick and didn’t have to wait long for a scoring opportunity.
Kristina Stockton found Amanda Mantel streaking down the right side in the fourth minute of play. After a shifty misdirection move, Mantel found herself alone with Fair Grove keeper Autumn Wilson. The left-footed sophomore netted a 15-yard strike from just outside the right for a 1-0 advantage.
Liberty head coach Shelly Renegar was overjoyed with the early score.
“That’s huge for us,” Renegar said. “Just getting a goal that early in the game … we’re not used to that. We didn’t want to get just one goal. If we get one, just think about the next and play like you’re losing at all times.”
Just over a minute later, Fair Grove found itself in position for the equalizer.
A corner set piece was played to the front of the goal, only to be cleared by a timely Liberty header.
Midway through the half, Mantel struck again on a left-side breakaway.
Racing all the way to the end line, Mantel executed the exact same stop-and-go misdirection play and finished with a floater into the top corner.
While the footwork and ball-handling skills were on full display, Mantel was quick to credit her teammates and sibling for instilling a competitive spirit.
“I’ve been playing since I was four, so I’ve had a lot of motivation in soccer,” Mantel said. “It puts a lot of pressure on me to keep up my scoring throughout the season, and I just try to get better and better.”
While Fair Grove head coach Joseph Florez was well aware of Liberty’s dangerous goal-scorer, the speed with which the first two goals went up on the board made it difficult to shift to a more defensive-minded strategy that early in the game.
“[Amanda Mantel] is a stud,” Florez said. “She’s such a good player. I should tried to adjust to her better, but by the time we would have made any adjustments, it was too late. We just had to hang in there and try to let our game plan bear itself out.”
Mantel’s brace put the red team up 2-0 at the half. Rather than adjust to a more defensive game plan, Renegar kept her foot on the gas pedal.
“We’re not going to think just defense,” Renegar said. “We still have to play defense, but we’re still going to score. We’re still going to play us, and we’re still going to make ourselves better.”
Part of the reason Liberty’s first-year coach is able to make that decision is due to improved play along the defensive line, which includes Jaci Mantel.
The senior keeper shined in the title match and was under fire for much of the second half with breakaways and repeated set pieces.
Along with her linemates, the elder Mantel turned any and all would-be scoring attempts away.
“I was making sure to keep my defense up,” Jaci Mantel said. “Keep everybody hustling, nobody letting down and just making sure I stay solid as a goalkeeper back there and not let anything get by me.”
When asked about the sisters’ play in such a high-stakes game, Renegar’s face lit up with excitement.
“[Jaci and Amanda] are awesome,” Renegar said. “They’ve always played together. Jaci is our goalie but, really, she can come out and play just as well on the field as [Amanda] can. When I do that, they compete for goals, and I think it’s really sweet that they get to play together.”
With Fair Grove in desperation mode late in the game, Liberty’s third goal from Stockton put the game out of reach.
Renegar praised her team for consistent, focused play on the afternoon.
“We haven’t had a game where we’ve put everything together,” Renegar said. “We talked about certain players; we talked about talking. We really focused on a lot of defense and how to beat their defense. [Fair Grove] has a triangle that we’ve never seen before, and we put an extra forward up there to kind of throw things off.”
After ending the regular season with four straight losses, Liberty has been able to right the ship during the district tournament. Monday’s 2OT victory over New Covenant set the stage for Thursday’s big title performance.
“We really came back today,” Renegar said. “We’ve been working on it. We’ve been decorating everything, talking about it, wanting it … talking about how close it is; how real it is for us. It’s huge as a coach.”
For Fair Grove, the loss marks the third straight runner-up finish at the district final.
After the game, Florez was quick to praise his team’s will to keep fighting late in the game and, in particular, the overall play from goalkeeper Autumn Wilson.
“Autumn worked so hard today,” Florez said. “The goals she gave up were not her fault … point blank shots from too close. We allowed them to shoot from too close, which did not line up with our game plan.”
While Florez lamented surrendering a third goal, it was all-or-nothing at that point in the contest.
“Late in the game, we just tried to gamble a little bit, and that’s when they got that third goal,” Florez said. “We had to roll the dice at that point. We weren’t just going to sit back and take it. Yeah, it didn’t work out, but I liked that they worked hard the whole game and got goal-scoring chances. We just weren’t able to put them away.”
Next up for Liberty (8-9-1) is a May 24 trip to Fatima. The winner of next week’s quarterfinal matchup moves on to the final four.
Varsity Final: Liberty – 3, Fair Grove – 0
First-half scoring
MV-BT Liberty03:05Amanda Mantel (Krystina Stockton assist )1-0
MV-BT Liberty21:24Amanda Mantel (unassisted)2-0
Second-half scoring
MV-BT Liberty00:00Kristina Stockton (Amanda Mantel assist )3-0
