Olentangy Liberty hockey team cruises to district title, first state berth since 2017
The Olentangy Liberty hockey team turned in a dominating effort in earning its first district title since 2017, beating Upper Arlington 10-1 on Saturday at OhioHealth Ice Haus.
The Patriots (37-1-1) will play Cleveland St. Ignatius in a state semifinal at noon Saturday at Nationwide Arena. The winner plays Hunting Valley University School or Sylvania Northview for the title at noon Sunday.
Liberty is ranked second in the state behind St. Ignatius, according to MyHockeyRankings.com. Northview is third and University School is fourth.
The Patriots avenged a 3-2 loss to UA in last season’s district final, a game decided on 2022 graduate Sam Burns' goal with 4.9 seconds remaining in regulation. Liberty won all three regular-season meetings this winter.
“We thought it was going to be a real tight game, but everything sort of just went our way,” Liberty coach Kevin Alexander said. “We’ve seen spurts of this, but we’ve been waiting for this to happen all year. Our guys finally showed up and gave everything they had. ... It was total domination and I’m as shocked as everybody else.”
Andrew Leonard led the top-seeded Patriots with a hat trick and goalie Robbie Cook made 11 saves. Liberty peppered UA goalies Brady Hagkull and Mason Hernon, who made 33 and 22 saves, respectively.
Ben Walkerly scored for the second-seeded Golden Bears (23-13-1), who had won two consecutive district titles.
Liberty is looking to become the first team from the Columbus area to win a state title since the OHSAA tournament began in 1978. Only one central Ohio team has won a game at state — Dublin Jerome beat University School 3-2 in a 2019 semifinal before losing the title game 7-2 to St. Ignatius.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Olentangy Liberty beats Upper Arlington in hockey district final
