FREDERICK — Friday night’s Class 1A state semifinal between the Liberty Lions and the Harford Tech Cobras was one that promised fireworks. The Lions were looking to right the wrongs of last year when they lost to Harford Tech in the same round, and the Cobras went on to win the state title.

This, though, was a different year, a different game — and a different result.

The Lions scored an emphatic 3-0 victory over the Cobras to stamp their ticket to the Class 1A Maryland state finals, where they’ll meet the winner of Saturday’s Mountain Ridge-Brunswick semifinal at a date and time to be announced.

The first 20 minutes of Friday’s game was very nip and tuck; both teams looked very evenly matched. Each had their chances, Liberty had a free kick saved, Harford Tech had a couple corners swiped away by Lions goalie Jaxon Vanderhoof, part of his 11-save night.

Finally, Lions forward and captain Lucas Britos set up to take a free kick. Britos passed the ball on the ground into the penalty box perfectly, leaving it on a silver platter for fellow captain Austen Veach to sneak in behind the Tech defense and slot home the first goal.

“It made the whole team realize we can win this game,” Veach said when talking about the importance of their first goal. “It made us realize we were the dominant team and it gave us confidence.”

The game would shortly come to an unfortunate halt following the goal after Cobra defender and senior, Connor Piffath, suffered a serious injury that resulted in him leaving the game. Play was delayed nearly 20 minutes.

As the two teams resumed play, the game picked up where it left off, showing strong mental fortitude on both sides. Then, with a little over a minute left in the first half, Liberty was awarded another free kick. Unfortunately for the Cobras, they would be bit again. Britos delivered another great ball into the penalty box, initially being blocked off by the Cobra goalkeeper, Brandon Strieb, but picked up and blasted off the ricochet by Veach.

“We just tried to come out hard, like it was 0-0 still,” Britos said, explaining the mentality coming out of the injury timeout.

Liberty was up 2-0 at half, but there was still plenty of game left.

Tech came out with a lot of intensity to start the second half, due to being down but also off emotion following Piffath’s injury. Tech got chances which included a few corners and breakaways, but it wasn’t able to capitalize.

In the 67th minute, Britos cut through the Cobra defense, finishing off an amazing run with a shot across goal and nuzzling it into the bottom left corner to put his Lions up 3-0.

Second year Liberty coach Donnie Kwedar had very high praise for his captains.

“Those guys are true leaders. They want to win really bad, they really do,” Kwedar said. “They’re great kids. They’re good to other people, they’re good humans and they work hard. I think all the other kids look up to that, they know what the standard is and those guys set the standard.”

The Liberty captains put their stamp on this game, both on the offensive and defensive side of the ball. This includes Lions defender and senior Connor Clapper, who as a defender had 11 assists on the season. Though he did not have any assists in this game, his defensive presence and locking down key Cobras stunted any momentum on the opposing side.

The third goal from Liberty was the final touch to the dominant performance. The Cobras would make a few last attempts to get on the scoreboard and lessen the gap, but they were unsuccessful. The final seconds ticked off the clock and Liberty stamped its ticket into the finals.

Following the tough loss, Harford Tech coach Mike Dempsey said about his team, “What I take from this is that we have a great group of guys. This is our third semifinals in the last four years, so it’s a good tribute to the seniors here who really worked hard. I got a good junior class behind them getting this experience and we’ll be ready for next year.”

Liberty now prepares for the state finals. The scars from the Cobras’ strike last year brought them back better and stronger, and they are looking to cap off their season with a victory come next weekend.