Eagles not enough for state ranked Ava Bears

For most of the first half last Friday night, the Liberty Eagles football team battled closely with the state ranked Ava Bears. With just over five minutes remaining before half, Liberty cut the Ava lead to 22-14 on a Carter Pruett to Gavin Reese 26 yard pass. From there, however, it would be all Bears. 

Liberty could not match the size and physicality of Ava. The Bears used their Flex bone rushing attack to effectively run over and around the Eagles, to a tune of 52-14. 

Ava jumped out to an early 14-0 lead, after a 48 yard touchdown run from Tyson Tidwell and another 11 yard score from Hunter Adams. 

Liberty found a bit of a spark when Pruett hit Reese on their first touchdown of the evening, this one from 25 yards out to pull within 8-14.

Ava's Rylin Dickson took an outside sweep for a 44 yard scamper to extend their lead to 22-8, with 6:52 to go in the second quarter. 

Pruett's second touchdown pass to Reese would be Liberty's final points of the evening. Ava would go on to score 30 unanswered points.

Ava had the ball a total of six times in the first half and scored on five of them. Their sixth possession occurred with just 55 seconds remaining in the half. They would add two more scores in the second half to seal the deal. 

Fullback Hunter Adams led Ava with a total of four touchdown runs for the evening. Tidwell added a pair of scores and Dickson had one.

The loss drops Liberty's record to 1-3.

Up next for the Eagles, Willow Springs travels to "The Nest," for a rivalry game.