There was a brown out in Liberty Friday night. As Panther running back Alex Brown turned out the lights on the Orangefield Bobcats in the second half as he led the Liberty Panthers to a 42-27 victory at War Memorial Stadium.
Liberty (7-0, 1-0) remains undefeated on the season after securing the win in the opening game of District 12-4A, Div II. Orangefield (3-4, 0-1) hung with Liberty for a half, but got too much of Brown in the second half.
Four touchdowns and 195 yards by Brown were the story. In the second half is when Brown really made the difference. Twice Liberty had touchdown drives where he carried the ball on every play. On the season Brown has 1,122 yards and 13 touchdowns.
In the loss Orangefield’s Christopher McGee played great. McGee scored three times and gained over 200 yards on the ground and receiving. He had 169 yards rushing and 56 yards on the play of the game after catching a short pass which became seven points late in the first half.
Both teams’ defenses dominated early in the first quarter. Orangefield failed to get a first down on its first two possessions against the Panthers’ defense. Liberty fumbled the ball on its first play from scrimmage and the Bobcats’ Blake Deloach recovered at the Panther’s 17.
A chop block on the first play after the fumble moved the Bobcats back 15 yards. Three running plays only moved the ball to the 26. Jacob Rainey attempted a 43-yard field goal, but did not appear to hit the ball cleanly with his right foot and it was short and to the right.
The Panthers proceeded to go 74 yards in 15 plays on their next possession to take the first lead in the game. The Bobcats were flagged three times during the drive, but Brown got a lot of the yards carrying the ball seven times for 25 yards. He scored from the one to give Liberty a 7-0 lead with just four seconds gone in the second quarter.
It took Orangefield just 84 seconds to tie the game. McGee broke a dive play for 50 yards to the Liberty 24. After McGee got 8 yards he scored the touchdown on a 16-yard run off-tackle. Rainey’s point-after tied things up.
With the half winding down Liberty started another time consuming drive. Beginning at their own 26 the Panthers picked up three first downs with Brown and Tyris Williams doing most of the damage. Facing second-and-goal from the Bobcats’ 9 Liberty moved Williams to quarterback in a Wildcat formation. He faked a handoff and passed to L. J. Domain in the corner of the end zone for the score. Jesus Landeverde added the kick to make it 14-7 with just 40 seconds left in the half.
McGee took matters into his own hands after that. He ran the ensuing kickoff back to the Orangefield 44. On first down Caleb Kress passed to McGee in the left flat. McGee immediately shook off one tackle and cut up field. At about the Liberty 45 McGee appeared to be surrounded, but somehow he eluded a host of Panthers and cut to his right. The race was on to the end zone which it looked like McGee was going to lose. At about the 5 he broke another tackle and then dove in for the score completing a sensational 56-yard touchdown. Rainey made the kick to tie the game 14-14 with just 13 second left in the half.
Liberty scored the first four times it had the ball in the second half, three by Brown and the other on a pass from J. J. Slack to Williams for 20 yards. Wesley Frillou answered for the Bobcats with an 8-yard run and McGee closed out the scoring with a touchdown run from the nine with 26 seconds left.
Next week is the open week for the Orangefield Bobcats. They resume action October 21 at home against Hamshire-Fannett. Liberty travels to Hamshire-Fannett next week to play the Longhorns. (photo by Darren Hoyland)
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
OF 0 14 7 6- 27
LIB 0 14 21 7- 42
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