Varsity Football Wins Game for Hunter, 42-24
ARGYLE — The Liberty Christian Warriors played with a purpose at home Friday night, and it paid off with a 42-24 victory over Arlington Grace Preparatory Academy.
The Warriors scored on the first plays of each half — one each by the offense and defense — and overcame three third-quarter turnovers to get the emotional win at Bowles Stadium.
The Warriors dedicated the game to a fellow student who has been playing with another purpose — fighting for his life.
Hunter Johnson, a senior, has been fighting a near-one-year battle with brain cancer and served as an honorary captain for the game. The school honored him earlier in the day during the team’s pep rally at the school. Liberty Christian players also honored him during the game by wearing orange (Hunter’s favorite color) wrist bands and spats.
Johnson — and the Warriors (2-0) — were immediately rewarded with a 70-yard touchdown run by Miles Smith on the game’s first offensive play. Smith took a straight handoff from quarterback Josh Cousins and went up the middle untouched for the score.
The Lions (1-1) came back to tie the game later in the first quarter on 17-yard pass from Foster Sawyer to Jahraan Franks.
The Warriors took the lead for good early in the second quarter, finishing a 10-play, 56-yard drive as Benn Hawkins scored on a 16-yard run. Hawkins took the handoff, bounced off a tackler and scrambled into the end zone. Mikael Sroka kicked his second extra point, and Liberty Christian led 14-7 with 11 minutes, 49 seconds left in the first half.
Grace Prep cut the lead to 14-10 on a 28-yard field goal by Will Mims with 3:34 left in the half.
It looked as if the Warriors would take that lead into the dressing room as they punted with just over a minute to go, but the Lions fumbled the kick and the Warriors recovered at the Grace Prep 32.
Four plays later, Cousins hit Jesse Ward on fade route in the right corner of the end zone for the touchdown with 20 seconds left. Sroka’s kick gave Liberty Christian a 21-10 halftime lead.
On the first play of the second half, it was the defense’s turn to score for the Warriors.
Foster Ford jumped in front of a Sawyer pass for the interception and returned it 30 yards for the score and a 28-10 lead.
The defense also came up big, holding the Lions to just seven points after the Warriors coughed up the ball three times inside their own territory in the period.
The defense then set up the clinching touchdown as Christian Burks intercepted another Sawyer pass and returned it to the Grace Prep 1-yard line. From there, Hawkins ran it in for his second touchdown of the game. Sroka’s extra point made it 35-17 with 2:54 left in the quarter.
Smith, who had 138 yards on 18 carries, finished the scoring with an 11-yard run with 5:06 left in the game.
Liberty Christian 42, Arlington Grace Prep 24
Grace Prep 7 3 14 0 — 24
Liberty Christian 7 14 14 7 — 42
Scoring summary
First quarter
LC—Miles Smith 70 run (Mikael Sroka kick), 11:42
GP—Jahraan Franks 17 pass from Foster Sawyer (Will Mims kick), 4:25
Second quarter
LC—Benn Hawkins 16 run (Sroka kick), 11:49
GP—Mims 28 FG, 3:34
LC—Jesse Ward 19 pass from Josh Cousins (Sroka kick), 0:20
Third quarter
LC—Foster Ford 30 interception return (Sroka kick), 11:46
GP—Bryan Ball 1 run (Mims kick), 9:45
LC—Hawkins 1 run (Sroka kick), 2:51
GP—Jake Curreri 2 run (Mims kick), 0:25
Fourth quarter
LC—Smith 11 run (Sroka kick), 5:06
Team statistics
GP LC
First Downs 20 19
Rushing 45-173 34-207
Passing 13-33-3 9-24-1
Passing Yards 222 101
Total Yards 395 308
Fumbles-Lost 3-1 4-3
Punts-Avg. 7-29.3 6-28.5
Penalties 13-99 5-40
Individual statistics
Rushing — Grace Prep: Jake Curreri 21-109, Bryan Ball 13-68, Ryan Newsome 4-8, Kevin McCreight 1-(-1), Foster Sawyer 6-(-11); Liberty Christian: Miles Smith 11-138, Benn Hawkins 6-32, JonAaron Howell 2-21, Josh Cousins 3-15, Dylan Sprock 2-9, Camron Cornett 3-(-8).
Passing — Grace Prep: Sawyer 13-32-3 222, Newsome 0-1-0 0; Liberty Christian: Cousins 9-24-1 101.
Receiving — Grace Prep: Jahraan Franks 4-79, Nate Hodapp 3-48, Newsome 3-18, Myles Norwood 2-15, Curreri 1-56; Liberty Christian: Jesse Ward 2-34, Mitchell Rowsell 2-24, Smith 1-15, Daniel Loch 1-12, Kyle Metzger 1-10, Tim Douglass 1-5, Sprock 1-1
Thank you to the Denton Record-Chronicle for this story.