Liberty soccer rides strong second half to win over Lindbergh

Published 2:25 pm Friday, March 27, 2026

If the first half was the sample size, Liberty and Lindbergh would have looked like they were competing at similar levels. A late goal at the end of the first half gave Liberty a 1-0 lead, but in the second half on March 26, Liberty dominated.

The Patriots rode a four-goal second half to a 5-0 win over Lindbergh. The Patriots were coming off a 3-0 defeat against Inglemoor in their previous matchup, but felt like that wasn’t the type of team they have shown to be so far this season.

“We have good players. But we try to do too much individually sometimes, where we’ve got to move the ball and release it. Our width is our strength, the middle is not. When we get the ball wide, that is our whole goal. Get it to our wing backs, get it deep and get some crosses in,” head coach Darren Tremblay said. “We did a much better job of that in the second half.”

Liberty drew level against Bellevue and was unbeaten until the 3-0 loss to Inglemoor. Getting back on the winning side was without question despite how the first half went for the Patriots.

“We set the expectation to win by a lot of goals. First half we could have cleaned it up, but I am glad we cleaned it up in the second half,” junior Freddy Peitl said.

In the first half, Lindbergh’s goalkeeper Khiem Tu was sensational. It was clear and obvious that he was a special player with his decision making and tenacity between the posts. He made an impression on Liberty players and coaches.

“He was a really good goalkeeper. I was not expecting him to be that good,” Peitl said.

Despite Tu’s play in goal, Lindbergh has now conceded at least five goals in their last four games. This season, Lindbergh has been outscored 2-26 in their six games this season.

The two sides played a really competitive first half, but in the 39th minute, a corner kick from Mark Kolvenko caused some stress for the Lindbergh defense, and Daniel Grabowski pinballed the ball into the back of the net.

In the second half, 80% of the game was played on the Lindbergh side of the field. Liberty’s defense played care-free soccer. The backline was never under duress or stressed with a Lindbergh attack.

“It’s amazing. The number one reason why we are tactically good there is because we are so calm in the back. We have an advantage where we could have all of our center back under pressure and they’ll stay calm and composed,” Peitl said.

Liberty was on the benefiting end of the only mistake Tu made where he was caught in no man’s land, misplayed a clearance and Michael Strelcheik gave Liberty a 2-0 advantage.

In the 56th minute, Freddy Peitl scored his first of two goals on the night, getting his head on the end of a perfect delivery from Rajdeep Brijesh.

“The flood gates seemed to have opened. We had opportunities in the first half and just weren’t capitalizing. Then everything was going in during the second half,” Tremblay said.

Peitl scored the next Liberty goal in the 69th minute from a nice back-heel pass from Jonathan Bartolo. Peitl hit his stride late last season for the Patriots, but this year, his goal-scoring ability is prevalent in game six of the season for Liberty.

“He’s getting back into the form, better than he was last year. This was his best game for sure,” Tremblay said.

The Patriots added a fifth goal in the 73rd minute from Ethan Lust running down the right wing to put the icing on the cake for Liberty.

“If we just keep playing our game, stay focused and keep the intensity high during practice, we should come out on top in every single game,” Peitl said.

Lindbergh takes on Sammamish on March 31 on the road for their next fixture, while Liberty will head to Tukwila to take on Foster that same day.