EARL WATT
• Leader & Times
ULYSSES — The first two plays for the Liberal Redskins offense were touchdowns against a struggling Ulysses defense still looking for the team’s first win of the season. The scoring frenzy continued for Liberal in a 53-6 blowout win.
The Redskins started with a 67-yard bomb form Tevin Cotter to James Fieser 14 seconds into the game, and after a Max Holman interception, Ayden Juarez broke a 26-yard touchdown run, and Liberal had a 13-0 lead in the first 65 seconds of the game.
Fieser caught his second touchdown pass of the game on Liberal’s next possession, and moments later he completed the hat trick with a 19-yard touchdown pass that gave the Redskins a 25-0 lead.
Alex Schwindt found the end zone form eight yards out to push the lead to 32-0, and Xavier Tafoya broke free for a run of 36 yards followed by a 14-yard run to the end zone that gave the Redskins a 39-0 lead in the first half.
Ulysses started the second half with a 14-play drive that was aided by a roughing the kicker penalty after a missed field goal before Joel Guaderrama caught a seven yard pass for a touchdown to cut the lead to 39-6.
Moments later Tafoya was back in the end zone after a 29-yard run for a 46-6 Liberal lead, and the running clock was enacted.
Liberal coach Bryan Luetters made massive substitutions the rest of the way, but Tafoya was able to reach the end zone one more time with a 36-yard run to push the lead to 53-6.
The Liberal reserves held on to the ball for a 14-play drive that burned up most of the fourth quarter, and time expired with the Redskins having the ball at the Tiger 1 yard line.
“We worked on bubbles and screens, got the ball to our playmakers,” Luetters said. “We got a little rhythm. First play we decided to take a shot with James. We could have done that a lot tonight. We worked on some things, only ran four different run plays tonight.”
The win sets up a key game for playoff seeding against Hays. Starting running back Xavier Porras sat out Friday against Ulysses.
“He got healthier throughout the week,” Luetters said. “Another three days he will be good to go against Hays.”
Liberal is currently the fifth seed of the 16 teams in the Class 5A West Division, and a win Friday would set up a home playoff game next week.
