EARL WATT
• Leader & Times
Bishop Carroll and Liberal have a history of playing big-stakes games, ranging from the old district system to the Kansas Class 5A playoffs.
Rarely would the match-up be a first round game, but with Carroll having one of the most challenging seasons in recent memory and the Redskins on the rise, the old rivalry was renewed at Redskin Field Friday.
While Liberal dominated the rivalry through the 1980s and 1990s, Liberal has lost the last eight meetings to the private school before Friday’s 17-6 victory.
And the performance was not Liberal’s best.
The first possession was a quick start for Liberal after James Fieser made a 23-yard reception from Tevin Cotter. That was followed by runs of eight and one yard by Xavier Porras, and then he broke free for a 50-yard touchdown run and a 7-0 Liberal lead.
But the Redskin offense sputtered on the next drive at the Golden Eagle 35 yard line and punted on the possession after that.
Cotter was strip sacked on the fourth possession at the Redskins 24 yard line, but Adan Amador came away with an interception at the goal line on the next play, highlighting a strong defensive performance that limited Carroll to just two first downs at that point in the game.
Liberal took the ball from the Redskin 1 yard line and went 94 yards to the Carroll five yard line before settling for a field goal and a 10-0 lead.
The Angry Red defense continued to bottle up the Golden Eagle running game, and early in the fourth quarter the Redskins deflected a punt and took over at the Carroll 33 yard line.
Eight plays later, Porras plunged into the end zone on a one-yard dive for a 17-0 lead.
Carroll answered with its best drive of the night, moving the ball 65 yards on 10 plays including a 30-yard touchdown pass to cut the lead to 17-6.
Liberal was forced to punt with 2:06 to play, but Amador intercepted a pass, and the Redskins offense ran out the clock to secure the 17-6 win.
“It’s a good win, it’s a playoff win,” Liberal coach Bryan Luetters said. “At this point of the season you go 1-0 every week you’re going to be in good shape no matter how you do it. We need to clean up some things on offense. We had some untimely penalties again, something we haven’t done for a couple weeks. That’s frustrating.”
Liberal was close to the shutout late but allowed a touchdown drive for the 17-6 final.
“We played great defense the whole game, and then one drive it’s like we totally lose our minds, and then we play good defense again,” Luetters said.”
Liberal had chances to score more but according to Luetters made some fourth down miscues.
“You get the ball on the six in line and drive 95 yards but can’t get the final five yards and settle for a field goal,” he said. “We have to do better at situational football. We took a sack on fourth down. Throw the ball. An interception isn’t bad at that point. We caught another ball on fourth down and tried to do something too special. If we fell down we had the first down. That’s another drive where we could have scored.”
Fifth seed Liberal will now face fourth seed Hutchinson.
“We call this the redemption tour,” Luetters said. “We lost to Hays last year by a foot in double overtime. We got that taste out of our mouth. We lost to Maize in the playoffs last year, don’t think we should have lost that game. Now we have one more going to Hutch. It was 7-7 at half two years ago. Then we dropped some passes and a 15-yard punt. We want to play Hutch.”
