Leonardo
By Jamie Baker
- THE COURIER
Liberty-Benton’s back is against the wall and the Eagles’ defense played like it Friday night.
Liberty-Benton held Pandora-Gilboa to just 85 yards of total offense Friday night on its way to a 28-0 win over the Rockets to stay in the hunt for a playoff spot.
The Eagles, the No. 9 team in the latest Division V Region 18 computer rankings, won their fifth straight to improve to 7-2 overall and 7-1 in the BVC. They can, in all likelihood, clinch a playoff spot with a win over Leipsic (8-1) next week.
Liberty-Benton held a potent Pandora-Gilboa offensive attack to just 29 yards rushing on 20 attempts. P-G quarterback Josh Breece was 11 of 17 passing for just 56 yards.
“Our defense played lights out tonight. Coach Snider and Coach Arnold did a great job getting them ready to play. If you don’t allow the other team to score, you can’t lose,” said Liberty-Benton coach Tim Nichols. “They never were really able to get in a rhythm. They hit some short stuff here and there but we kept them from getting into a flow and we avoided the big play. In my mind, that’s the best defensive game we’ve played,” he added.
The Eagles broke on top on the game’s first series. Liberty-Benton put together a seven-play scoring drive on its opening possession capped by a 10-yard touchdown run by Jed Miller on a counter play.
An easy L-B scoring drive wasn’t the way the Rockets (5-4 overall, 5-3 BVC) wanted to start the game.
“The first lesson we have to learn is everyone has to come together to play from the very first play,” said Pandora-Gilboa coach Carey Arthur. “We didn’t show up at the very beginning but we regrouped and came back.”
While the Rockets regrouped on defense and held the Eagles to just seven points in the first half, the offense had its problems hanging on to the football all night.
Pandora-Gilboa fumbled the ball away to the Eagles four times. Three of the fumbles in the first half came when they were in Libberty-Benton territory.
“We’re not an explosive enough team to make up for mistakes. Those turnovers, those fumbles, killed us,” Arthur said. “They really hurt when you are on a drive or you leave the ball on the ground for them in your own territory. That was the name of the game tonight.”
While the Rockets hung in during the first half, it was all Liberty-Benton in the second half. The Eagles marched 80 yards in just four plays capped by a 28-yard touchdown run by Brady Vaught on their first possession of the second half to go up 14-0.
Vaught, who rushed for 106 yards on 17 carries, added a 3-yard scoring run that was set up by a P-G fumble, with a little less than 2 minutes left in the third quarter.
Miller, who carried the ball 16 times for 67 yards, capped the scoring with a 1-yard TD plunge with 9:03 left in the contest.
Liberty-Benton’s big boys up front dominated the line of scrimmage in the second half. The Rockets, who dressed just 28 played Friday night, may have just worn down a bit in the second half.
“We’re a little thin especially in the interior and that wears you down a little bit. I think that showed in the second half,” Arthur said. “We needed to have gotten a couple of scores and gotten the lead but it just wasn’t in the cards tonight.”
A thin line will be even a thinner next week when the Rockets wrap up the regular season next week at home against unbeaten McComb.
One of the the BVC’s most highly-touted lineman, 6-foot-5, 267-pound Tejay Boes, was ejected from the contest with 7:21 left in the game. According to OHSAA rules, he will have to sit out next week’s season finale.
It was a tough lesson to learn and a difficult way for the season to end for Boes, who will almost certainly play football at the collegiate level.
“The second lesson we learned from tonight is you have to play with emotion and passion,” Arthur said. “But sometimes, you can say the wrong thing at the wrong time and it will cost you.”
With a playoff spot at stake next week, look for Liberty-Benton to play with plenty of passion and emotion of their own at home next week against Leipsic.
“Leipsic is a heck of a team, but we can’t out-trick ourselves. We just have to get ready to play, dig in and see how it goes,” Nichols said.