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Liberty advances to state quarterfinals

It wasn’t the finish Liberty High’s girls soccer team envisioned when the season began.

The loss to Lee’s Summit North in the Class 3 quarterfinals was the sudden end to a season that looked like it might end with the Blue Jays’ first-ever state semifinal berth.

Lost in the loss to the Broncos was the fact that Liberty (23-5) did take a step this season. Last year’s season ended with loss in sectional play. This year, Liberty was able to get to the quarterfinals. And the Blue Jays accomplished it with what is still a very young team.

“Overall, we had a much tougher schedule and it helped us for the most part,” said Liberty coach Tom Rottjakob. “We’ve got some special players and we just need to make sure we get back to business, work hard and come together for next season. The sophomores on this team made a big step up this year and I can envision them getting stronger as they head into their junior seasons.

“We were close to having it happen this season. There were a couple different points in the Lee’s Summit North game where it appeared it was going to go our way.”

Liberty outscored its opponents 129-37 this season and  got them from multiple sources. The Blue Jays featured one of the more balanced scoring teams in the area. Sophomore Shea Groom led the way with 39 goals, followed by junior Brooke Williams with 32. Sophomore midfielder Kaysie Clark had 24 and sophomore midfielder Kelsey Goff added eight.

“Shea was a little stronger this year,” Rottjakob said. “She didn’t have an easy goal in any of the three she scored in the quarterfinal. She had to fight for each one and her strength was a benefit.

“Brooke matured a lot as a leader this year. She has grown into a great player. Kaysie amazed me with how much she improved and she had a good freshman year. She doesn’t get some of the accolades because she doesn’t put in all of the goals, but she controls the midfield. She controls the game.”

The Blue Jays will return players who scored 128 of Liberty’s 129 goals this season. And Liberty’s defense figures to improve with the return of sophomore Maddie Mason, who underwent knee surgery just before the season began, and a full season from freshman Delaney Kiely.

“You never know how much they could have helped this year,” said Rottjakob. “But we are looking forward to having them both be healthy. You don’t want to take anything away from the players that played because they stepped up and did a good job.

“Maddie was a starter as a freshman and she rarely got beat. And Delaney is still not close to where she can be and she was able to help us in the last part of the season.”

The Blue Jays should be the team to beat in the Kansas City area next season.

“We were one of those teams this year and even last year, to be honest,” Rottjakob said. “If we jell together and keep everybody healthy, we are going to be a tough team to beat. There’s no question about it.”

Sports writer Kevin Goodwin can be reached at 389-6652 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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