Crescent defense stymies Red Devils in region matchup

By Clay Counts
Special to The Courier

claycounts21@yahoo.com

LIBERTY — After dropping their region opener against Seneca the previous week, the Liberty Devils looked to bounce back last Friday against Crescent.

The Tigers had other ideas, however.

On a warmer-than-usual October night, the Crescent defense was dominant, holding Liberty to negative yardage on the ground and returning two early-second-quarter interceptions for touchdowns as the Tigers spoiled the Red Devils’s homecoming with a 28-14 win.

After a scoreless first quarter, Crescent scored three touchdowns in a span of less than two minutes early in the second — the first on offense and the other two on interception returns — to effectively put the game out of reach.

“We’ve got to be ready to play and engaged,” Liberty coach Kyle Stewart said after the game. “It’s an effort that doesn’t start on Friday — it starts on Monday afternoon. We’ve got to be mentally engaged. When someone challenges us physically, it’s got to be a gut check, and we’ve got to be able to respond. They were physical up front, and we struggled.”

While the Tigers racked up all of their 315 yards of offense on the ground, Liberty ran the ball 17 times for negative-5 yards. Red Devil senior fullback Clay Lollis, who has led the Liberty rushing attack all season, was only able to manage 12 yards on 13 carries as the Crescent defense forced Stewart to go to the air.

“We felt like we had to open it up a little bit,” he said. “It made it hard for us to go to our full ground-control game because we ran short on time.”

Liberty quarterback Carter Smith finished the night 10-of-25 for 135 yards, including an 18-yard touchdown pass to Jaitayus Smith. Jaitayus Smith led the team with 69 yards on five grabs, but he was followed closely by freshman Shaimaine Jamison, who was a highlight for the Devils with two catches for 45 yards and a big night on defense.

Stewart spoke about Jamison’s

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