|
|||||||||||||
Printer-Friendly
Email this Story
Post a Comment (0)
Eagles celebrate trip to state semifinals
It was supposed to be one of those pooch kickoffs that lands short of the lethal return men waiting around the 10-yard line. But Jordan Hunter had other ideas. Seeing an opening, the Liberty High tapped the ball lightly. It went the requisite 10 yards, as an Eagle fell on it virtually uncontested. Brilliant!
“I kind of took a risk,” admitted the 5-foot-8, 243- pound Hunter, also an LHS lineman. “Coach told me to pop it up, but the left side was wide open. I did it on my own.”
Hunter's mild act of civil disobedience turned into a momentum-seizing play, as the Eagles seized the initiative in their most important game of the year. Soon Derrick Lee, James Rogers and Corey Lillard had scored touchdowns as the Eagles bolted to a 21-0 lead with a full four minutes left in the first quarter, and cruised to a 41-14 victory over George Washington-Danville in the Northwest Region championship of the Group AAA Division 5 playoffs.
The victory puts the Eagles two wins from the state title. Liberty (10-2) meets pass-happy Dinwiddie (11-1) in the state semifinals Saturday at 1 p.m., with the winner meeting the Stone Bridge-Phoebus (Hampton) winner for the state title Dec. 6 in Blacksburg.
Played on a sub 30-degree night with gusty 25 mile-per-hour gusts that pushed the wind chill into single digits, the Eagles kept their legs warm by running at will in matching the best season in school history. LHS also made the state semifinals in 1998 and 2001 as a Group AAA Division 4 school.
While Liberty always had this potential, their march is an eye-opener. After all, the Eagles were reeling after district losses to Osbourn and Battlefield and it was unclear if they would make the playoffs. Now the Eagles have now won six in a row and made mincemeat of their first two playoff opponents from downstate.
“The team is coming together. It’s like a big family. We’re more than peaking, we keep getting better,” said senior lineman Kory Gough.
After the game LHS assistant coach and former FHS head coach Tom Ferrell made a point of noting that GW-Danville is now 0-4 when it comes to Fauquier County. “(Fauquier) Ccoach John Chmara beat them three times.”
One postseason key has been the pinpoint passing of quarterback Nick Potts, who clicked on another precision pass to James Rogers for a 19-yard TD pass that made it 14-0. “James ran inside and then broke out. As soon as I saw him break I threw it,” said Potts.
That was about all that was needed out of Potts’ wonderful arm. “We didn’t do a lot of passing, but I’m not complaining. The run was working and there was no need to stop,” said Potts, who was just 2 for 6 for 31 yards.
With 206 yards on 14 carries, Lillard was the chief battering ram of a devastating rushing attack that gained 351 yards and seemed to gash Danville on almost every series...
See the Wednesday print edition of the Fauquier Times-Democrat for the complete story.
You must be logged in to post a comment.