EARL WATT
• Leader & Times
After giving up two late scores to Dodge City a week earlier, the Liberal Redskins reversed the script and put Friday night’s game away against Garden City by scoring 16 points late for a 23-6 win.
The Angry Red defense set the tone early with a three-and-out on Garden City’s first possession.
The Redskins took an early 7-0 lead by scoring on their first offensive drive of the game. Xavier Tafoya capped a 62-yard drive with a 13-yard touchdown run for a 7-0 advantage.
But the Redskins didn’t score again in the first half with the next two drives ending in punts.
Liberal’s fourth drive started with a 64-yard reception to James Fieser, but Xavier Porras fumbled on the next play, and the Buffaloes recovered at the Garden City 20 yard line.
Neither team scored before half, and Liberal’s first drive of the third quarter ended with a Tevin Cotter fumble at the 40 yard line.
Liberal was able to get a stop on fourth down, and the Redskins took over at the 24 yard line.
But Cotter was strip sacked for a second time, and the Buffaloes took over at the Liberal 15 yard line.
The short field led to a sweep tot he left side and a 17-yard touchdown run by Mario Ruiz, and after a missed point after attempt because Garden City had 12 men on the field and missed the second attempt, Liberal led 7-6.
The teams traded punts before Liberal took over with only three seconds remaining in the third quarter at the Redskin 4 yard line.
Porras made up for his earlier fumble by breaking through the middle of the Buffalo defense and streaking to the sideline for a 96-yard touchdown run and a 14-6 Liberal lead.
The Buffaloes put together their best drive of the game by moving the ball from their own 20 yard line to Liberal’s 36 yard line before getting stuffed on a fourth down play, and the Redskins defense again denied the Buffaloes a chance to score.
But the Redskins couldn’t sustain a drive and had to punt, but Horacio Casas boomed a 73-yard punt to back the Buffaloes up to their own 1 yard line.
Ruiz attempted to run the ball out of the end zone, but the Angry Red defense crushed him a yard in the end zone to score a safety to give the Redskins a 16-6 lead.
After the free kick, Liberal took over at the 50 yard line, and for the second time Porras broke free for a 50-yard touchdown run with 2:46 to play to give the Redskins a 23-6 lead.
Garden city started its final drive at the 12 yard line, and after two first downs the Buffaloes couldn’t convert again, and the final play of the game was a fourth down play that ended with a two-yard loss and a Redskin win.
Porras ended the night with 17 carries and 204 yards.
Fieser had five catches for 110 yards.
Cotter was eight for 15 for 148 yards and no interceptions.
“It’s not the way we wanted to do it,” Liberal coach Bryan Luetters said. “We only gave up six points but it seemed like they ran all over us.”
The three fumbles prevented the Redskins from running away early.
“We get on them pretty good when they make a mistake,” Luetters said. “Porras had that fumble, but he made up for that with the 96 yarder, and he really made up for it with the 50-yarder. It’s key situations when we are turning it over. We could put the nail in the coffin early and we fumble. It happened last week. We’ve worked on it. The kids understand. I was proud of the defense. We cleaned up some stuff there. I don’t care how many yards we give up. It comes down to points.”
Liberal hosts Great Bend Friday.
