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The South Carroll High boys soccer team's 3-0 loss to host Liberty on Monday was the kind that leaves a team wanting revenge. But for now, the Cavaliers have other teams on their hit list.
Playing on the day that the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association's region playoff brackets were released, the game had no impact on playoff standings. The Carroll County title was already decided by Century, who finished 6-0 in the county.
The game was still a classic rivalry, which made it far from meaningless for South Carroll head coach Tim Novotny.
"I'm looking for my players to show up and play," Novotny said.
He noted that he hasn't fully let his team know who their opponents would be or their seed in the Class 2A West Region playoffs, which randomly dealt South Carroll (3-7-1, 2-4-1 Carroll County) the No. 6 spot.
"We haven't really talked about it, because I wanted to focus on Liberty, our rivals," said Novotny, whose team won the 1A West Region crown last season.
Instead, Liberty (9-1, 5-1) came off as the focused team, earning the shutout on its Senior Night. Senior forward Marc Gillen scored twice for the hosts, while junior defender James Fencil added a goal and an assist. Senior midfielder Eric Skelly contributed an assist, heading the ball to Gillen, who also used his head to score the goal.
Senior keeper Kevin Hollasch had one save in the first 50 minutes of the game, while senior goalie Abraham Thouin had two saves in the next 20 minutes. Sophomore goalie Ethan DeBandi closed out the shutout for the Lions.
The Cavaliers finished with nine shots on goal, and couldn't convert on its best chance, as Fencil made an outstanding hustle play to boot the ball away before it crossed the goal line.
Senior keeper Tom Vogel had three saves for the Cavaliers.
Liberty received a bye for the first round of the West playoffs by virtue of its fourth seed. South Carroll will host Rockville on Friday night. Rockville has just two wins, one by forfeit. But Novotny said that he doesn't want to take them for granted.
"Our focus is to get past Rockville first, then beat North Carroll," Novotny said. "We need some revenge against North Carroll. The past two years we've played them, we've lost by a combined score of 8-0."
If the Cavaliers intend to avenge their loss to Liberty, it would have to be in the region championship, as the two teams are on opposite sides of the bracket.