Credit: Charles Wingate | The News Herald

Freedom's Yaret Regino (left) is taken down in the box against Hunter Huss on Wednesday at home.

The Freedom High varsity boys soccer team opened the 3A state playoffs with a 4-0 home win over Hunter Huss on Wednesday at the Catawba River Soccer Complex to advance to the second round for the third consecutive year.

It says a lot about our program, Patriots long-time coach David Fletcher said. And thats why we wanted the No. 1 seed. If you make the playoffs, its been a good season. If you win your conference or win a playoff game, its been a very good season. And if you win more than one playoff game, its been a great season.

So we hope to have a great season. But we know every round gets a little tougher.

Freedom (16-5-1) got started with a fourth-minute goal by McCartney Barrier, who one-timed a shot in midair after receiving a pass from Maco Juarez Son. Tyler Gramer had crossed the ball to Juarez Son from the right wing to set up the goal.

Then after 30 minutes without a goal in the match despite a multitude of Patriot chances, a scramble in front of the Huss goal after a deflected shot resulted in a Barrier assist to Yaret Regino and a 2-0 advantage.

McCartney has scored our first goal in three of our last four games now, Fletcher added. Hes really been hot for us. We talked at halftime about our depth being able to wear them down. But we also felt like there was a lot we left out there in the first half.

Regino tacked on another goal five minutes into the second half, slamming home a close-range shot after taking a long flip throw-in from defender Christian Patton for a 3-0 lead.

I saw it go over the (Huss) player after Christian threw it in, Regino said, and I was just able to get behind him and finish it.

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Freedom soccer advances to second round for third year in a row