Mountain Ridge girls soccer exacted revenge against rival Liberty at the most opportune time, winning Saturday's playoff rematch to reach the 6A Conference semifinals.

When the two teams met back in mid-January Liberty got the best of Mountain Ridge by a score of 2-1. However, Mountain Ridge held  on to its lead the second time around for a 1-0 victory. 

“We have been wanting this rematch since the loss especially since it was our senior night,” said Mountain Ridge’s senior striker Aryanna Peregrino. 

The loss fueled the Mountain Lions on their home field Saturday and that extra juice showed early. 

Mountain Lions sophomore forward Bailey Fetter was the match's lone goal scorer. Fetter drilled a penalty kick eight minutes in to give the Mountain Lions the lead. The young standout now has 18 goals on the season. 

“Last time the cards were not in our favor, but we won when it counted,” Fetter said.

For the Mountain Lions, the season continues as they are in the final four for the first time since 2002. #4 Mountain Ridge will travel to Ahwatukee to face #1 Desert Vista at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

After falling down 1-0 the Lions were not in unfamiliar territory. In the teams’ first match up the Mountain Lions took an early 1-0 advantage, but the Lions were able to battle back to get the win against a then-undefeated Mountain Ridge squad. 

“We have come back from 1-0 deficits before and we have done it on this field,” Liberty’s head coach Kyle Pooler said. 

The Lions caused some noise at the end of both halves earning some nice looks and shots on goal but were not able to capitalize. This time the Mountain Lions were able to withstand any Lions push to move on. 

The win was the first for Mountain Ridge over Liberty since 2020, which was a forfeit. Before that the Mountain Lions haven’t been the Lions since 2012. 

“Well as far back as I looked back, Ridge has never beat Liberty so what a way to do it,” Mountain Ridge head coach Ryne Jakubos said. “Our goal was not to win every regular season game it is to make it to the postseason and make a run.”

The talent and depth of quality teams from the Desert Valley Region have these Moutain Lions battled tested. As of Saturday morning across the AIA all five teams were still in the playoffs. 

“I love that everyone in our region represents,” Coach Jakubos said. “Also being able to play against talented players and great coaches it is fun, that is the kind of soccer you want win or lose.”

The loss is crushing for #5 Liberty, as the team came into the playoffs with high expectations. 

“I think when you do not reach the expectations that you have it is always a downer,” Pooler said. 

As the Lions turn the page to the 2025-26 season a loss like this can add some extra motivation over the offseason. 

The Lions should return their two leading goal scorers, junior forward Sydney Day who scored 10 and junior forward Evelyn Carr who scored nine. Coach Pooler is confident that his team to learn from this loss and come back even stronger next season. 

“You can do two things, you can learn from it and get better or you keep doing the same things you are doing and you may end up with the same results.” Pooler said. 

Colin Hogan is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Liberty High School for AZPreps365.com