Resiliency paid off in the 60th minute of a dark and stormy soccer game for Alex Censullo.

The junior and his fellow Mount Si boys soccer squad had spent the first half of a cold and rainy Tuesday, March 20, home match against Liberty under pressure from the Patriots. Then, it was time for payback. Coming up from a 1-2 deficit and seeking goal opportunities left and right, Wildcat tenacity paid off. Junior midfielder Erik Stai fed a ball to Censullo, who cut across the Liberty keeper to put it away, eliciting cheers from a well-bundled crowd.

“In the second half, we really took it to them,” Censullo said. “In the second, we were skilled. We finished a lot.”

For Censullo, Tuesday’s well-fought win was about toughness, “scrapping out a game that we probably should have won a lot easier. But… a win’s a win.”

It was Liberty who applied pressure in the first half. The Patriots got on the board first in the seventh minute with a quick rebound of a kick stopped by Wildcat keeper Hunter Malberg. Five minutes later, Mount Si’s Matt Eichler replied with the first Wildcat goal. A Mount Si foul gave Liberty a penalty kick at minute 21, and Patriot Josh Johnson found the net, making it 1-2 Cats entering the half.

The rain never let up, but neither did the Wildcats. About 14 minutes into the second 40-minute half, Mount Si’s Kody Clearman evened the score on a pass from Censullo, paving the way for the winning goal a few moments later.

For Censullo, resilience comes from being a team in which many if not most players have spent years on club teams together.

“We’ve built up a lot of chemistry,” Censullo said. “We’re all good friends… You could see that in the second goal.”

Clearman was fast on his feet, too, zipping around the flanks of Liberty defenders through much of the second half.

“I was trying to get in open spaces and make things happen,” he said.

Clearman praised Stai and senior Davis Karaica for going all-out on the field.

“Stai worked hard, he went for balls 100 percent,” Clearman said. “We had more skill. We underestimated them for a little bit, but we came back like a good team should, and pulled it out.”

Following the match, coach Darren Brown huddled the boys under the still-falling rain, praising their ability to play through blood, sweat and tears, and urging them to keep bringing it all to the field. He wants to see wins for the rest of the season.

“When it’s a physical match, the difference maker is who’s really going to be the aggressor,” Brown said. “We had to settle into that, and it took us longer than 40 minutes… before we started playing our game.”

Brown agreed that his four-year varsity veterans are used to playing to each other’s strengths—”it’s a good group”—but said the best is yet to come.

“They’re getting more used to each other every single day,” the coach said. “At the end of the season, the play is going to be at even better standards.

“There is no easy game in KingCo,” Brown added. “There is a high bar of excellence we’re setting forth. They know that.”

In Mount Si’s first game of the season on March 15, Mount Si battled Issaquah to a 1-1 tie at home. Senior Chace Carlson had the Wildcats’ sole goal of the game.

The Wildcats host Sammamish on Friday, March 23. Mount Si next plays at Lake Washington on Wednesday, March 28, then heads to Juanita on Friday, March 30. Game time is 7:30 p.m.

• You can follow Mount Si soccer at http://mshsboyssoccer.com/