LIBERTY FOOTBALL WILL RELY ON SPEED THIS SEASON

Speed kills. It's a saying used often in sports. For the Liberty Eagles football team, they hope the old cliche is true. This year’s team will have the speed advantage many Friday nights but will also likely have to overcome a size disadvantage along the line of scrimmage.

After a 1-2 start to the 2020 football season, Liberty pulled off an impressive 10 wins in a row, including a 44-20 payback win in the district championship game over Fair Grove. Learning how to win close games was often their recipe for success as they went 5-0 in one-score games. Gone from that team is a group of seniors, including two All State and seven All Conference players. The biggest loss was along the offensive and defensive line as four out of five starters graduated.

Fret not Liberty fans. The cupboard is hardly bare. Returning to lead the offense is a dynamic group of playmakers, including tandem quarterbacks senior Tyler Watts and sophomore Carter Pruett. Tyler is an all-conference QB with a physical running presence. Tyler's focus for this season is simple, “We want to win a district title.” In his freshman year, Carter was an all-conference RB/QB hybrid with great ball carrying capability.

Perhaps the deepest position on the team will be at wide receiver where the Eagles bring back their entire receiving corps, including seniors Noah Jester and Jentry Acklin, and juniors Kal Acklin, Drew Ripko and Lucas Frazier, among others. Noah is an All State receiver with exceptional hands and elusive catch-and-run capability. Noah had this to say about the off season: “Me and my boys have been working really hard. We've gotten a lot bigger, faster, and stronger.” Jentry is another all-conference weapon in the Eagles arsenal with blazing speed.

Liberty will rely on some young talent to lead the team from the line of scrimmage. Junior Blake Martin will be a key cog on the offensive and defensive line. Sophomore Brody Rutledge returns a year removed from the rare freshman all-conference nod.

On the defensive side of the ball, Liberty will platoon many of the same names, including all-state lightning bolt defensive back Tanner Ripko. Tanner is a hard-hitting senior who recorded over 100 tackles last year.

Second year head coach Brock Kenaga knows what his team has to do to be successful, “The line of scrimmage has to mature quickly for us. We always say game 5 is when we want to be completely solidified and know exactly who we are.”

The Liberty Eagles certainly hope to be hitting on all cylinders come district time in pursuit of a deep playoff run. Their quest starts this Friday, August 27 in Strafford to take on the Indians.