For the better part of this season, the Liberty boys soccer team played the role of the lovable loser, always coming agonizingly close to victory before watching it slip away.
Following last night's 1-0 win over Urbana, however, the Lions now have captured a somewhat more sought-after role - regional champion.
Nick Rigby's goal with 11:03 left gave host Liberty the lead, sending the Lions - who went 5-7 during the regular season and once lost four straight games in overtime - to the first state semifinal for any Carroll County team since 1991.
The Lions (9-7) advanced to Monday's Class 3A semifinal at Urbana High School against No. 2 River Hill, a 1-0 winner over Mount Hebron. River Hill defeated Liberty, 5-0, earlier this season.
After four straight playoff wins, however, Liberty coach Ed DeVincent feels that anything is possible.
"You know ... who knows? It seems like a team of destiny right now," DeVincent said. "We just keep getting better."
That was also the case last night. After looking somewhat lethargic during the first half, and getting outshot, 6-3, Liberty stepped up its intensity.
"I told them at halftime that if we kicked the ball away from the sweeper, we'd get more opportunities," DeVincent said. "In the second half, I think we did a better job getting the ball to our forwards' feet ... and getting some opportunities."
Said Urbana coach Kevin McMullen: "It was very poor conditions - very sloppy - and, unfortunately, for a possession-style team like ours it takes us out of our game. It was tough."
Urbana (11-6) nearly took the lead midway through the first half, but a direct kick by all-state midfielder Sean Cunningham hit the near post. Midway in the second half, an apparent Liberty goal was waved off because Rigby made contact with goalie Dan Orrison, causing him to fall backward into the goal.
Minutes later, however, Rigby scored by dribbling past all-state sweeper David Stinson, who slipped and fell, then beating the charging Orrison with an off-balance slow roller.
"I was pretty lucky," Rigby said. "If we kept on putting the ball in there, eventually one was going to go to somebody. I was there that one time."
"It's frustrating," McMullen said. "I have an all-state player back there who just is having a great game at sweeper, and he loses his footing like that."
Lately, though, the team that during the regular season couldn't catch a break has been getting all of them.
"We finally clicked as a team," Liberty's Rigby said. "We lost [several] games by like one goal - almost every single one - and we didn't want to go down like that again. It's just an inspirational thing to go sub-.500 for the season, then come back and win four straight for the playoffs."