BELLBROOK – Sometimes it’s odd how a round ball can take a bad bounce.

However, after 75 minutes of scoreless soccer, it was a bad bounce that helped spell the end of the Mason boys soccer season.

Under the unrelenting pressure of the state’s second-ranked team, a ball in the box bounced wrong as Mason tried to clear it and Olentangy Liberty’s Jared Robinson found the ball at his feet six yards in front of Pedro Diaz.

Robinson’s shot beat Diaz to the right side for the lone goal with 4:44 left in the Division I state semifinal at Bellbrook High School on Wednesday.

“It was to where whoever flinched first was going to decide the outcome,” Mason coach Paul Reedy said after his squad finished 18-3-1. “Our kids played with great effort and intelligence against a team most thought was heavily favored. It was just unfortunate; a tough bounce and teams that good are going to capitalize.”

Diaz and the Mason defense were unbeatable the rest of the night.

Olentangy outshot Mason 9-0 with Diaz recording one acrobatic save after another. The fullbacks did a nice job fronting the Patriots forwards to thwart several other attack opportunities.

“In the tournament, you are playing against the best teams and he has been able to keep everything out of the goal,” Reedy said of Diaz. “But, that point blank range, no one is going to stop those. We knew we had to have good defensive shape; we couldn’t get spread out because they have the firepower to make us pay if we gave them an opening.”

The Comets became the fourth team to hold Liberty to one goal, and the first in the last eight games.

Liberty put the Comet defense to the task right from the opening whistle as Diaz made a diving save 38 seconds into the match. Diaz made two more diving saves in the first half, the last coming with 23:14 off a corner kick.

“They put us under pressure early, but I think after the first 20 minutes we settled in a bit,” Reedy said. “You could make the argument that they had a little better run of play, but we held our own after that.”

Mason had several potential opportunities in the second half but could not get a shot off. With 1:18 left, Jack Clark took a cross from Michael Marino, but his one-timer went high and wide of the net.

“The kids found the confidence that we could play with them and we were able to put them under some pressure,” Reedy said. “We didn’t play our best in the first half, and the kids knew that. We just couldn’t create a shot in the final third (of the field).”