EARL WATT
• Leader & Times
Liberal’s defense only allowed two touchdowns Friday night against Great Bend, but the offense couldn’t sustain drives in a 14-7 loss.
The highly recruited Great Bend tight end Ian Premer had a strong first half including a 71-yard touchdown reception when he was in single coverage on the sideline and avoided an attempted tackle.
But in the second half, Premer was a nonfactor. Premer did not have a reception in the second half, and an attempted run was stopped for a two-yard loss.
Liberal’s biggest struggle was in the passing game. Freshman Tevin Cotter completed four of 13 attempts for 39 yards and one interception. Cotter’s first five passes were incomplete, and that forced head coach Bryan Luetters to rely heavily on the run.
Xavier Porras carried the lion’s share, running 33 times for 160 yards for an average of 4.8 yards per carry.
But untimely penalties contributed to ending drives, from holding to false starts.
After a scoreless first quarter, Great Bend took a 7-0 lead after taking over at the Liberal 45 yard line and completing two passes to Premer for 25 yards and then having rare success in the running game with a 14-yard gain by Jace Schartz and followed by a six-yard Schartz run to the end zone.
Liberal drove the ball down to the Great Bend 19 yard line but the drive stalled, and after a nine-yard run by Schartz, Premer caught a short pass down the right sideline and beat the lone Liberal defender for a 71-yard touchdown.
Premer didn’t gain another yard the rest of the game, but Liberal’s first two drives of the second half were a turnover on downs at the Great Bend 37 yard line and an interception at the Liberal 49 yard line.
But the defense prevented the Panthers form taking advantage of the short field and took over at the Liberal 20 yard line.
The Redskins put together an eight-play, 80-yard drive that ended with a 26-yard touchdown run by Xavier Tafoya.
after forcing a stop with 5:08 to play, the Redskins looked to tie the game with a 13 play drive that moved the ball to the Panther 13 yard line, but a fourth and three pass with 23 seconds to play fell incomplete and Liberal lost 14-7.
The Redskins (4-2) travel to Ulysses (0-6) Friday.
