Saturday, September 05, 2009
Liberty hangs on to beat Blacksburg
BEDFORD — Brett Dietrich is a senior at Liberty High and he starts for the football team at safety. He earned his job the hard way because he had a lot of catching up to do after having not played since he was in middle school.
So it wasn’t totally surprising to Liberty coach Chris Watts when Dietrich asked to look at some more tape of Friday evening’s opponent Blacksburg earlier in the day.
“He’s a heady kid, a smart kid,” Watts said. “Some kids when they ask to look at film, all they want to do is look at themselves. He had early arrival today and asked if he could watch some. I told him sure because I knew he’d watch it. I don’t know if it helps, but it couldn’t hurt.”
No indeed. The 6-foot-1, 175-pound safety learned enough about the Bruins’ spread offense to be correctly positioned twice for a pair of critical interceptions, the first two of his career. The second, he returned 35 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter that gave the Minutemen just enough of a cushion to hold on for a 13-10 non-district victory.
On the ensuing very short kickoff, the Bruins won a scramble and took over at their 44.
“That wasn’t an onsides kick,” Watts said. “Our starting kicker [Zach Rawlins] was hurt.”
Six plays later, Blacksburg quarterback Terrence Travis connected with Kevin Wilson on a slant pattern that ended in an 11-yard touchdown with 7:19 left.
Branson Robinson, who had kicked a 23-yard field goal in the third quarter to open Blacksburg’s scoring, belted the extra point to cut the margin to three points.
The Bruins defense forced Liberty to punt on its ensuring possession. However, Blacksburg (1-1) sputtered to a halt in its last possession and once Liberty (2-0) got the football back, the visitors from the River Ridge District never saw it again.
“We played extremely hard but never could get into a rhythm offensively,” Blacksburg coach David Crist said. “Give Liberty the credit for that.”
Travis, a junior making his second varsity start, went 12-for-22 for 118 yards, a TD, and the two picks. He also chipped in 18 of his team’s 82 rushing yards.
The Minutemen didn’t put on a clinic-ready exhibition offensively . Despite gaining 187 yards, 104 of that by six ballcarriers on the ground, Liberty had four fumbles and lost one and missed a field goal.
“The fumbles came at all the worst times,” Watts said. “It put us in a bad position. But when we had to have a first down at the end of the game to put it away, we got it and I was proud of that.”
As for Dietrich, he saw all he needed to see earlier in the afternoon.
“I was watching all the formations they like to run and what they run when they’re in those formations,” he said. “Especially, when they were in third-and-long, they like to run two guys down the field and they like to run deep routes. Coach has been reminding us about that all week. I just tried to stay back as much as I could and look for the openings that I had.”
On the TD return, both Dietrich and cornerback Malcolm McCoy jumped for the football. Dietrich got there first.
“When I took off, he took off in front of me,” Dietrich said. “I just followed my blocks and let them lead me to the end zone.”
It was the second huge play of the game for Liberty, which didn’t have a first down until it scored on the third play of its third possession. The call was a dandy, senior quarterback Tyler Bowyer going deep for McCoy, who had gotten behind the secondary on the left side. McCoy hauled it in and raced the rest of the way on the 75-yard scoring play.
“It was a rollout and I saw the corner head back and the safety come up and I saw Malcolm and hit him deep,” Bowyer said. “It worked out pretty good.”
Blacksburg 0 0 3 7—10
Liberty 7 0 0 6—13
L — McCoy 75 pass from Bowyer (Rawlins kick)
B — FG Robinson 23
L — Dietrich 35 interception return (kick failed)
B — Gibson 11 pass from Travis (Robinson kick)
BL LI
First downs 10 8
Yards rushing 82 104
Passes C-A-I 12-22-2 3-5-0
Yards passing 118 83
Penalties-yards 3-30 3-38
Fumbles-lost 2-1 4-1
Punts-average 3-32.3 6-27.3
Individual statistics
RUSHING — Blacksburg, Anderson 9-32, Travis 13-18, Wilson 1-2, Garner 4-12; Liberty, Smith 13-50, Clark 10-41, Reynolds 1-2, Andersen 1-0, Bowyer 12-5, McCoy 2-6.
PASSING — Blacksburg, Travis 12-22-2-118; Liberty, Bowyer 3-4-0-77, Reynolods 0-1-0-0.
RECEIVING — Blacksburg, Wilson 5-64, Sowers 3-32, Porter 4-22; Liberty, McCoy 2-77, Reynolds 1-6.
So it wasn’t totally surprising to Liberty coach Chris Watts when Dietrich asked to look at some more tape of Friday evening’s opponent Blacksburg earlier in the day.
“He’s a heady kid, a smart kid,” Watts said. “Some kids when they ask to look at film, all they want to do is look at themselves. He had early arrival today and asked if he could watch some. I told him sure because I knew he’d watch it. I don’t know if it helps, but it couldn’t hurt.”
No indeed. The 6-foot-1, 175-pound safety learned enough about the Bruins’ spread offense to be correctly positioned twice for a pair of critical interceptions, the first two of his career. The second, he returned 35 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter that gave the Minutemen just enough of a cushion to hold on for a 13-10 non-district victory.
On the ensuing very short kickoff, the Bruins won a scramble and took over at their 44.
“That wasn’t an onsides kick,” Watts said. “Our starting kicker [Zach Rawlins] was hurt.”
Six plays later, Blacksburg quarterback Terrence Travis connected with Kevin Wilson on a slant pattern that ended in an 11-yard touchdown with 7:19 left.
Branson Robinson, who had kicked a 23-yard field goal in the third quarter to open Blacksburg’s scoring, belted the extra point to cut the margin to three points.
The Bruins defense forced Liberty to punt on its ensuring possession. However, Blacksburg (1-1) sputtered to a halt in its last possession and once Liberty (2-0) got the football back, the visitors from the River Ridge District never saw it again.
“We played extremely hard but never could get into a rhythm offensively,” Blacksburg coach David Crist said. “Give Liberty the credit for that.”
Travis, a junior making his second varsity start, went 12-for-22 for 118 yards, a TD, and the two picks. He also chipped in 18 of his team’s 82 rushing yards.
The Minutemen didn’t put on a clinic-ready exhibition offensively . Despite gaining 187 yards, 104 of that by six ballcarriers on the ground, Liberty had four fumbles and lost one and missed a field goal.
“The fumbles came at all the worst times,” Watts said. “It put us in a bad position. But when we had to have a first down at the end of the game to put it away, we got it and I was proud of that.”
As for Dietrich, he saw all he needed to see earlier in the afternoon.
“I was watching all the formations they like to run and what they run when they’re in those formations,” he said. “Especially, when they were in third-and-long, they like to run two guys down the field and they like to run deep routes. Coach has been reminding us about that all week. I just tried to stay back as much as I could and look for the openings that I had.”
On the TD return, both Dietrich and cornerback Malcolm McCoy jumped for the football. Dietrich got there first.
“When I took off, he took off in front of me,” Dietrich said. “I just followed my blocks and let them lead me to the end zone.”
It was the second huge play of the game for Liberty, which didn’t have a first down until it scored on the third play of its third possession. The call was a dandy, senior quarterback Tyler Bowyer going deep for McCoy, who had gotten behind the secondary on the left side. McCoy hauled it in and raced the rest of the way on the 75-yard scoring play.
“It was a rollout and I saw the corner head back and the safety come up and I saw Malcolm and hit him deep,” Bowyer said. “It worked out pretty good.”
Blacksburg 0 0 3 7—10
Liberty 7 0 0 6—13
L — McCoy 75 pass from Bowyer (Rawlins kick)
B — FG Robinson 23
L — Dietrich 35 interception return (kick failed)
B — Gibson 11 pass from Travis (Robinson kick)
BL LI
First downs 10 8
Yards rushing 82 104
Passes C-A-I 12-22-2 3-5-0
Yards passing 118 83
Penalties-yards 3-30 3-38
Fumbles-lost 2-1 4-1
Punts-average 3-32.3 6-27.3
Individual statistics
RUSHING — Blacksburg, Anderson 9-32, Travis 13-18, Wilson 1-2, Garner 4-12; Liberty, Smith 13-50, Clark 10-41, Reynolds 1-2, Andersen 1-0, Bowyer 12-5, McCoy 2-6.
PASSING — Blacksburg, Travis 12-22-2-118; Liberty, Bowyer 3-4-0-77, Reynolods 0-1-0-0.
RECEIVING — Blacksburg, Wilson 5-64, Sowers 3-32, Porter 4-22; Liberty, McCoy 2-77, Reynolds 1-6.
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