Trying something new this week with a quick first half recap of the game. Let us know if you like it.
The Flames are thin at linebacker today with Solomon McGinty and Lucas Irons out due to injury. Irons was questionable all week, but McGinty was a late week scratch. Jaylyn McKinney and David King got the start at linebacker with true freshman Remington Green as the first backup.
Liberty opened the game on offense with its first two 3 & outs of the season. On Trey Turner’s 2nd punt of the game, Cephas Reddick was blocked into the Indiana State returner who had called for a fair catch. Liberty’s Ben Alexander recovered the fumble, and 4 plays later Buckshot connected with B.J. Farrow for a 3 yard score as Liberty took the 7-0 lead.
The Sycamores quickly responded to tie the game at 7 on a 1 yard “run” by Jaquan Keys 5 plays after the Farrow score.
The Flames responded with an 11 play, 75 yard drive to retake the lead at 14-7. The drive was highlighted by a 46 yard pass from Buckshot to Antonio Gandy-Golden which set up a 1 yard Carrington Mosley touchdown.
After the teams traded punts, a holding penalty on an Indiana State defender negated what would have been a 12 yard sack that would have set Liberty up with a 3rd and 21 at the 44 yard line. On the next play, Mosley found a huge hole in the middle of the Sycamores defense to scamper to a 22 yard touchdown run, giving the Flames a 21-7 lead with 10 minutes left in the half.
On the first play of the following drive, Indiana State hooked up on a deep 49 yard pass. It was the only yards the Sycamores would gain on the drive as they were forced to settle for a 43 yard field goal which brought the score to 21-10 at the 8:26 mark of the 2nd quarter.
Indiana State lined up to attempt a 48 yard field goal on the ensuing possession, but faked it. The holder floated a pass downfield that was caught in the end zone for a 31 yard touchdown pass, bringing the score to 21-17.
AGG caught all 3 passes intended for him for a total of 65 yards and a 13 yard touchdown on the next drive as Liberty took the 28-17 lead.
Just 3 plays later Indiana State went 64 yards on a busted Liberty coverage to bring the score within 4 at 28-24 with 2 minutes left in the half.
The Sycamores will get the ball to start the 2nd half.
