The Flames finished its first season as an FBS member with a dominating, 52-17, win over FCS member Norfolk State to even its record at 6-6 on the season. With the win, Liberty has now won 6 or more games in each of the past 13 seasons and becomes just the 9th team ever to win 6 or more games during their inaugural FBS campaign.
Both teams got field goals on their opening drives. The Flames had their longest drive of the season by number of plays and time of possession that ended in a 20 yard Aaron Peart field goal to take an early 3-0 lead. The drive lasted 17 plays, 76 yards, and took 6:52, and it was aided by two 3rd and long conversions on passes by Buckshot Calvert to B.J. Farrow and D.J. Stubbs.
The Spartans responded by methodically marching the ball down the field to tie the game at 3 courtesy of a 22 yard field goal. The kick came after Juwan Carter’s pass on 3rd and goal from the 5 was incomplete.
Liberty would score again as fullback Michael Bollinger hauled in his first career reception for an 18 yard touchdown on the Flames’ 2nd drive of the game. The touchdown pass was Buckshot’s 65th of his career as he moves into sole possession of first place of the program mark for touchdown passes.
Immediately following Bollinger’s touchdown, Norfolk State fumbled the kickoff return. It was forced by Lionell Johnson and recovered by Aaron Pierre at the 12 yard line. Three Frankie Hickson rushes later and the Flames pushed the lead to 17-3 at the beginning of the 2nd quarter, and Hickson eclipsed the 1,000 rushing yard mark of the season. He becomes the first Flames RB since 2014 to accomplish the feat.
After senior defensive back Jeremy Peters broke up his 14th pass of the season to force a Norfolk State punt, Kentory Matthews broke free for a 43 yard run to quickly move the Flames in to the red zone. A few plays later Matthews would find the end zone to give Liberty a commanding 24-3 lead with 11:33 left in the first half.
Liberty was forced to punt for its first time of the game on the team’s 5th drive of the game. The punt would be muffed by the NSU returner and recovered by Liberty’s Javon Scruggs at midfield. Buckshot would connect with Antonio Gandy-Golden for a 23 yard completion as AGG was knocked out at the 1. On that play, Buckshot went over 3,000 passing yards on the season and AGG went over 1,000 receiving yards for the year. Calvert is the 2nd Flame ever to record back-to-back 3,000 yard seasons, and AGG is the second ever to post consecutive 1,000 yard seasons.
On the first play of the ensuing drive, Rion Davis jumped in front of a screen pass and returned it 22 yards for a touchdown, giving Liberty a 38-3 first half lead. The Spartans would put a touchdown on the scoreboard bringing the score to 38-10 at halftime.
Matthews had two 2nd half rushing touchdowns to push the Flames over the 50 point mark for the 4th time on the season. He finished the game with 4 rushing touchdowns, just 1 shy of the program record.
The Flames utilized a strong ground game as both Frankie Hickson and Kentory Matthews had solid afternoons. In addition to going over 1,000 rushing yards on the season, Hickson also had his 6th career and 5th 100 yard game of the season. Matthews also eclipsed the 100 yard rushing mark on the day, marking the first time since November 5th, 2016 against Presbyterian when Carrington Mosley and Todd Macon did so.
The win is Turner Gill’s 47th of his Liberty career, as he ties Danny Rocco for second place on Liberty’s career wins list.
