If the first play from scrimmage wasn’t a sign of the kind of night Liberty Christian was having, a 30-yard touchdown pass on fourth and one admist a Fork Union surge in the third quarter certainly was. Save for the final minute of play in the second quarter and a good chunk of the third, the night simply belonged to the defending VISAA Division 1 champions playing on their home turf.
After building up a 28-point lead and fending off the Blue Devils’ hopes for a comeback, LCA was able to repeat as state champion to the tune of a 35-14 victory.
“Getting up on them was key,” said Bulldogs coach Frank Rocco. “We got up and then forced them to pass, be a little more one dimensional and give them a myriad of pressure schemes that I guarantee they haven’t seen a lot this year.”
Tre Bradley took the opening kickoff 93 yards to make it 7-0 for Liberty, and after that, it was one big play after another as running back Carrington Mosley set up long drives only to have the passing game cash them in for points. Matt Lewis made it 14-0 early in the second quarter when he found Dakota Kelly for a 43-yard TD pass. Just 21 seconds later it was 21-0 thanks to a 62-yard interception return from Bradley. With 3:04 left, Zach Clinton found BJ Farrow for a 24-yard touchdown pass to make it 28-0.
“Everybody just (handled) their role tonight,” Rocco said.
And Fork Union coach Micky Sullivan, coaching his last game, just didn’t get the breaks he needed to finish out the year with what would have been an incredible ending.
“You can’t play people like LCA, a great football team and a great program, give them six off the bat and make mistake after mistake, shoot yourself in the foot when you get close,” Sullivan said. “You can’t do that. We knew that coming in and that’s a credit to them. It’s just one of those things that happens. You wish it could happen a different way, but it wouldn’t.”
Between the end of the second quarter FUMA found some life offensively by bringing in Malcolm Cook at wide receiver. Cook, who spared his team from giving up another TD thanks to an interception, found success on the other side of the field thanks to a 22-yard catch followed by an 9-yard scoring reception from Hackenberg just before the break.
Out of the break, the Blue Devils marched down field to first and goal but were stopped on fourth down. FUMA’s next possession went a lot better with Hackenberg hitting Chrystian Brown from 20 yards out to make it a 14-point game.
With the Fork Union sideline coming to life, the Blue Devils defense got LCA into a 4th and 1 situation late in the third quarter just past midfield. And instead of pounding the ball inside as everyone in the stadium expected, the Bulldogs went all in by going to the air with Clinton finding a wide open Logan MacGregor for the last score of the game, a 30-yard strike.
On the night, Mosley finished with 112 yards on 21 carriers for LCA. Lewis and Clinton combined for 169 yards passing. Kelly led LCA with 72 yards on three catches.
For FUMA, Hackenberg was 16 for 30 passing with 188 yards. Michael Guerci was the top receiver for the Blue Devils with four receptions for 68 yards. Running back Nick King had nine carriers for 69 yards. Defensively, Dondre Wright led Fork Union with 9.5 tackles while Cook added six. Brett Seigel had four tackles and his team’s lone sack on the night.
