Kick start

Liberty’s men’s soccer team (1-0) defeated Bluefield College (0-1) 2-1 in its season-opener Friday night in front of a home crowd of over 400 fans.

Khalil Karl, a transfer from St. Louis, was playing in his first game as a Flame. In the 47th minute, Bluefield’s Nick Rivadeneira was ejected from the game after receiving a red card, leading to a Karl goal on the ensuing direct free kick.

“I’ve been practicing that all week, and I saw it as sort of a practice shot,” Karl said.

Karl bent the ball into the upper-right corner of the net from just outside the 18-yard box, giving him his first goal of his Liberty career.

“It’s really a blessing for me and glory to God first of all,” Karl said. “It’s been a great experience coming here, and I hope I can continue to do really well for this team.”

Chavez tacked on what ended up being the winning goal off a play from Alan Arellano and Bay Kurtz.

“I was hungry for the ball coming off an injury, being that this is my first game actually getting some minutes,” Chavez said.

With Liberty (1-0, 0-0 Big South) leading 2-0 and playing a man up, Bluefield’s (0-1) Benny Slator scored on a through ball to the left side of the goal.

Liberty had chances early but could not put one in the back of the net in the first half. The Flames outshot the Rams 28-6 for the game.

“Even with the number of shots we generated, their keeper made two or three good saves, but we have to finish those chances,” Head Coach Jeff Alder said. “We have to be hungrier.”

Bluefield keeper Jefferson Watson had eight saves for the Rams while Flames keeper Scott Sutarik tallied three saves.

Alder said his team’s tough preseason schedule helped lead to their success Friday night.

“We had a good preseason,” Alder said. “We played (UNC) Greensboro and Virginia Tech and it helped the speed
of play.”

The Flames will travel to Lexington Sept. 2, where they will visit their former conference opponent Virginia Military Institute (VMI).

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