Injury-ridden Patriots fall hard

Liberty's Tunde Onakoya (2) finds some room to run the edge and stiffarms Fayetteville City's Chase Johnson on his way to a touchdown. (T-G Photo by Danny Parker) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

Liberty Middle fell into a quick 14-0 first-quarter hole and never got off the mat versus a talented Fayetteville City team that trotted out of Bedford County with a 38-12 win on Tuesday night.

Already dissipated by injuries to key contributors like tight end David Delrio, the young Patriots lost Zach Seibers in the early stages of this one thanks to a hip pointer.

The Tigers weren't remorseful and kept the foot down on the pedal throughout. They jumped out on top 6-0 after quarterback Ryan Golden hit Sol Ford for a 42-yard touchdown. Nearly two minutes later Matthew McKinney scooped up a Liberty fumble and took it 41 yards to the house. TreVonte Harper ran in the conversion to make it 14-0.

"They didn't stop us tonight. We stopped ourselves," Patriot coach Jimmy Darden said. "Overall, I'm still pleased with the team. They finished strong. They never did give up."

Indeed, the Liberty boys answered by opening holes for tailback Tunde Onakoya, who did the rest in the open field for a 65-yard TD run early into the second quarter.

Ford pushed the Fayetteville upper hand back to 14 when scampered 13 yards to the end zone with 1:24 to go in the opening half.

The Tigers put the game away in the third quarter. Golden returned a punt 32 yards for a score. The QB then hooked up with Ford again for a 41-yard pass play to paydirt. Golden's 43-yard fumble return to the end zone made it 38-6.

Onakoya added the last points with a 16-yard TD run with 27 seconds remaining. Liberty then recovered the on-side kick but ran out of time.

Darden was proud of how his team paid no attention to the scoreboard and played hard throughout.

"I see improvement every week," he said. "We've got a young ballclub. We've only got two players on the team that played last year and it shows."

Darden noted his excitement for the youth football league out at Liberty, which should provide a base of knowledge and experience to help develop future Patriots.

"You're going to see that, down the road, Liberty could be a very competitive team because then they'll have kids that will have played from K (kindergarten) till they get to the eighth grade," he said. "It's going to make a big difference. The best thing we could have done out here was start that K-6 league.

"Some of these kids didn't know what a three-point stance was until this spring. That's what we're going up against."

The Patriots go back to work on the practice field to continue learning before traveling to face Unity in two weeks.