The Liberty Middle football squad concluded a tough season with a 26-8 home victory over Heritage on Thursday in Foothills Athletic Conference play.
Liberty (2-4 FAC) scored three touchdowns in the opening half to race to an 18-0 advantage.
The Knights’ Matt Dale recovered a Heritage fumble on the game’s second play, and Liberty wasted little time in finding paydirt. Knights’ quarterback Peyton Mull plowed over four HMS defenders en route to a 39-yard rushing touchdown on first down.
The Knights’ second score came on an eight-play, 65-yard drive capped off when wide receiver Daxton Bostian caught a 29-yard pass from Mull then trotted untouched into the endzone.
Liberty’s third touchdown came with 17 seconds remaining in the half on a 1-yard plunge by fullback Riley Caraway.
“Our assignment was to be the first team in Liberty history to beat Heritage on our home field,” said Caraway. “We accomplished that for Coach (Shane) Parker because we, as a team, wanted to make him proud.”
Heritage (1-5) took over its opening possession of the second half at the Knights’ 35. On third and 7, the Eagles went into their bag of trickery when quarterback Leyton Shoupe tossed a lateral to split end Tanner Carswell, who in turn fired a strike to Myrian Reid for a 31-yard completion near the Knights’ goal line.
Shoupe sneaked his way into the endzone for the score, and Dajour Turner scooted over right tackle to add the conversion and cut Liberty’s lead to 18-8 with 1:45 remaining in the third frame.
Liberty’s Dalton Tallent returned the ensuing kickoff 31 yards to set the Knights up in great field position at the Heritage 42.
Tallent (nine rushes, 81 yards) got the handoff four consecutive times — including a 29-yarder to set up a first and goal at the Eagles’ 9. On the fifth play, Mull faked a handoff and zipped a 4-yard touchdown strike to Austin Davis.
Mull, with a key block from center Cade Pearson, scampered into the endzone untouched for the 2-point conversion to account for the final margin.
LMS’ offensive line — tackles Jason Basnett and Hampton Brown, guards Dale and Evan Diab and center Pearson — helped provide the blocking as the Knights rushed 28 times for 177 yards.
The Knights’ defensive unit, which limited Heritage to only 65 yards rushing and 31 yards passing, was spearheaded by Dale (fumble recovery, TFL), Brown (three sacks), Mull, Matt Curtis, Caraway and Austin Willingham. Mull also received protection from the line as he completed all five passes for 69 yards.
Heritage’s Dajour Turner produced the most all-purpose yards (104 return, 19 rushing) for the Eagles, whose defense was led by Cooper Abernathy (fumble recovery), Dalton Albright (TFL), Jacob Lowman, Xiong Thao, Turner and Carswell.
East Burke 32, West McDowell 14 — The Raiders concluded the season with a FAC triumph in Marion. East Burke (7-1, 5-1) finished the fall on a three-game winning streak, outscoring their opponents 114-26 over that stretch.
Brandon Clark tallied all five Raider touchdowns in the conference win.
“Brandon may have scored all five TDs,” said EBMS coach Todd Setzer, “but it all started with the leadership of quarterback Ryan Newell and the blocking from Michael Richardson and Bryson Freeman.
“The majority of the credit goes to the offensive line. These guys — Jakob Prestwood, Michael Stillwell, Tyler Griffin, Keegan Ruark, Eli Duckworth, Drew Kelly, Dustin Hammons and Zach Hunt — have made our team a huge success this year.”
The EBMS defense was led by B. Clark, B. Freeman, Luke Gragg, Jansen Beard and Christian Parson.
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