Warrior Football: Liberty beats Bishop Lynch 21-17. Go Warriors!
Football: Metzler’s key plays lift Liberty to district win
The Friars (5-1, 1-1) took the ball with 6:04 remaining in the game at their own 31. It didn’t take long to move the ball down the field, as Friars quarterback Tony Dodson threw a 42-yard bomb four plays into the drive. Lucas Boyd, a waterbug-quick receiver who caught nine passes for a game-high 177 yards, hauled in the pass at the Warrior 7 with a Liberty defender draped on his back. The defender was called for pass interference, putting the ball at the Liberty 3.
It appeared as if the Friars were poised for a go-ahead touchdown. The Friars ran a goal line play and Dodson — who normally worked out of the shotgun — was under center. He took the snap, but the exchange with running back Kevin Huffaker fell to the ground. Liberty linebacker Joe Angel busted through the line and recovered the fumble, his second fumble recovery of the night.
All Liberty had to do was run off the final 4:12 of the game, which it did, to preserve the win.
The fumble was one of three Friar turnovers, all of which took place in Liberty territory.
Warriors defensive lineman Brent McQuirk sacked Dodson and forced a fumble at the Warrior 36 with 3:48 left in the first quarter, which Angel recovered. The Warriors then picked off Dodson to start the second quarter, courtesy of Warrior cornerback Kyle Metzger. That turnover came in the end zone — one play after Dodson hit Boyd for a 59-yard gain deep into Warriors territory.
Dodson finished with 320 yards passing.
At times, the Warrior offense looked stagnant. But by the end of the game it had 290 yards on the ground, a game plan that kept the ball out of Lynch’s hands on offense.
Metzler had two of the game’s biggest plays. On the go-ahead touchdown run, he took a hole on the left side and made two cuts before cutting to the right at midfield. From there it was a foot race, and Metzler was going so fast that a potential blocker couldn’t catch him. The resulting 67-yard touchdown run gave Liberty a four-point lead.
And Metzler earlier gave the Warriors a 6-0 lead. He ran a slant route and hauled in a pass from quarterback Josh Cousins that he turned into a 40-yard touchdown on Liberty’s opening drive.
By halftime the Friars had a 10-6 lead, thanks to a 16-yard Dodson-to-Mark Czaus touchdown strike and a 32-yard field goal by Terry Stecker.
The Warriors regained the lead on their second drive of the second half, as they drove the length of the field and Jared Lawson scored on a 15-yard touchdown run with 6:34 left in the third quarter, giving the Warriors a 14-10 lead after Lawson scored on the conversion.
Lawson finished with 122 hard-earned rushing yards.
The Friars answered on the ensuing drive with a big play — a 29-yard touchdown run by Czaus, who rushed for 35 yards and caught nine passes for 93 yards. That score gave the Friars a short-lived 17-14 lead before Metzler’s heroics.
Metzler finished with 122 total yards of offense.
Liberty Christian 21, Bishop Lynch 17
Liberty Christian 6 0 15 0 — 21
Bishop Lynch 0 10 7 0 — 17
Scoring summary
First Quarter
LC — Brett Metzler 40 pass from Josh Cousins (kick failed), 8:41
Second Quarter
BL — Mark Czaus 16 pass from Tony Dotson (Terry Stecker kick), 8:03
BL — Stecker 32 field goal, :00
Third Quarter
LC — Jared Lawson 15 run (Lawson run), 6:34
BL — Czaus 29 run (Stecker kick), 2:20
LC — Brett Metzler 67 run (Mikael Sroka kick), 1:23
TEAM STATISTICS
LC BL
First downs 16 18
Rushing 39-290 24-84
Passing yards 105 308
Passing 4-11-1 26-40-1
Punts-avg. 2-40.0 2-39.5
Fumbles-lost 1-0 4-2
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—LIBERTY CHRISTIAN: Jared Lawson 22-122, Trevor Simms 3-28, Brett Metzler 4-82, Cameron Balkey 1-0, Corey Dodd 3-23, Josh Cousins 4-32, Eric Watts 2-3. BISHOP LYNCH: Kevin Huffaker 11-32, Tony Dodson 7-9, Kevin Sparkman 2-15, Mark Czaus 3-35, Team 1-(-7).
PASSING—LIBERTY CHRISTIAN: Cousins 4-11-1-105. BISHOP LYNCH: Dodson 26-39-1-320, Czaus 0-1-0-0.
RECEIVING—LIBERTY CHRISTIAN: Metzler 1-40, Rylee Brown 1-43, Tim Douglass 1-14, Dodd, 1-8. BISHOP LYNCH: Czaus 9-93, Lucas Boyd 9-177, Huffaker 2-23, Anthony Mullins 2-18, Jacob Head 2-6, Kevin Sparkman 1-1, Matt Doerr 2-2.