Warrior Football Starts Fast in Big Win over Pilot Point
Warrior Football Starts Fast in Big Win over Pilot Point
“What can we expect this year?” was a question particularly relevant for both the Bearcats and the Warriors heading into their season opener on Friday night, though it applied to each for a different reason. After Liberty Christian’s 50-35 victory at Massey Stadium, the Warriors had more answers than the Bearcats.
For Liberty Christian, the question was: What can we expect this year from a step up in competition? After losing in the TAPPS Division II championship game last year, the Warriors will play in TAPPS Division I this season. To prep for this season’s jump in district competition, the Warriors scheduled a stiff nondistrict schedule, including last year’s 2A Division I state champs Pilot Point.
But the Warrior defense was undaunted on Friday. Liberty forced the Bearcats to turn the ball over three times deep in their own territory at key points in the first half to help clinch the victory.
“They gave us a great effort and made good things happen,” Liberty Christian head coach Greg Price said of his defense. “Whoever turned the ball over more was going to lose the ball game.”
On the second play of the game, Liberty’s Tanner McDonald picked off a tipped Bearcat pass at the Pilot Point 18-yard line. Two plays later, Warrior quarterback Josh Cousins completed a 10-yard pass to Caden Compton for a the game’s first score.
Later in the first, facing a 14-10 deficit, the Warriors harassed Bearcat quarterback J.P. Price out of the pocket and into fumbling the ball at his own 18-yard line. Warrior defensive back Camron Cornett picked up the loose ball and rambled in for the score, giving Liberty a lead its defense would not relinquish.
With less than a minute to play in the first half, Price was again forced out of the pocket at his own 29-yard line and threw another interception, his third of the half. Three plays later, Liberty senior running back Jared Lawson rammed it in from four yards out. The extra point gave Liberty a comfortable 30-14 lead heading into halftime.
For Pilot Point, the question was: What can we expect from an offense that lost a 2,000-yard rusher in graduated running back Jarman Johnson? Johnson’s inspired campaign was a crucial part of the 15-game winning streak the Warriors snapped on Friday.
The answer Friday night seemed to point in the direction of Price. Despite being on the run for much of the night, Price managed to pass for 343 yards and rush for another 69. Price also led the Bearcats on two impressive first-half scoring drives of 80 yards.
But outside of Price, the Bearcats managed little offensively.
“We didn’t execute like we had been in practice and our two scrimmages,” Pilot Point head coach Blake Feldt said. “I thought we showed up really tight.”
Meanwhile, Liberty’s two-headed running back monster wreaked havoc on the Bearcat defense. Lawson and fellow senior Brett Metzler amassed 307 yards on the ground.
“That was our plan going in — to do a better job running the football,” Price said. “Good running backs make you look like a good offensive line coach”
Lawson scored on runs of 67, 4, 31, and 20 yards, and had an 80-yard touchdown scamper nullified by a holding penalty.
The dominance of Liberty’s rushing attack was not lost on Feldt, either.
“Those are two well-schooled, experienced running backs,” Price said of Lawson and Metzler. “That’s a good offense over there.”
So what can we expect this year?
For Pilot Point, improvement is the name of the game for the rest of the nondistrict schedule.
“Right now we’ve got to get better,” Feldt said. “We’ve got four games to improve. We’ve got to improve each and every week. We’ve just got to get better.”
As for that step up in competition facing Liberty, that’s exactly what Price hopes to see in his squad.
“I hope we step up and keep going to work,” Price said. “We can’t rest on tonight’s victory.”
Thanks to the Denton Record-Chronicle for this story.