By Jimmy Kirby
Courier Sports

jkirby@thepccourier.com

WOODRUFF — Keegan Halloran threw four touchdown passes and ran for [cointent_lockedcontent]another to lead Woodruff to a convincing 48-3 victory over the Liberty Red Devils on Friday night.

Brandy Karr/Photo
Liberty’s Shaun Karr finds a hole against Woodruff on Friday night.

Halloran connected on touchdown passes of 41, 1, 82 and 14 yards, while also scoring on a 10-yard run. On the night, Halloran connected on 12-of-14 passes for 289 yards and no interceptions. The only negative was that Halloran was sacked four times by the Red Devil defense.

Not a bad night’s work for any quarterback and, by the way, Halloran is only a freshman for the Wolverines. With a continuing supporting cast, look for Halloran to establish some pretty impressive stats by the time he completes his senior season.

The Red Devils had a tough night offensively, as they managed only 113 yards of offense. The Woodruff defense held the Red Devil rushing attack in check by limiting Liberty to only 92 yards on the ground.

The best drive of the night for Liberty came in the second quarter, as the Devils drove 65 yards on 17 plays and consumed 8:32 off the clock. The success of the Red Devil drive came running the ball right at the Wolverine defense. It was truly a run-straight-at-you, grind-it-out drive that ended with a 35 yard field goal from Dylan McCall to get the Red Devils on the board with their only points of the game.

The Red Devils didn’t have any luck trying to get outside on the athletic Woodruff defense. They managed only 48 yards on 26 plays the remainder of the game.

The long drive by the Red Devils limited the Wolverines to just five plays in the second quarter, but the problem was that two of the plays resulted in touchdowns for Woodruff. A 30-yard run by Jarius Thompson made it 28-3, and the Wolverines increased the lead to 35-3 on their next possession with an 82-yard pass from Halloran to Qua Phelps.

Woodruff wasted no time to score quickly in the first quarter following the opening kick off, as the Wolverines went 59 yards in only two plays. Halloran connected with Phelps for 18 yards on the first play from scrimmage, and then found Keith Pearson for 41 yards for his first touchdown pass of the night.

The two teams agreed to a continuous clock in the second half. Woodruff managed two scores in the second half, while the Red Devils managed only 16 yards on 14 plays.

The issues didn’t lie in the Liberty effort as much as the Devils being blitzed by Halloran and the Wolverine passing game. Three quarterbacks saw action for the Wolverines and finished the night 20-of-27 with one interception and 374 yards.

Liberty tried to sneak a long pass on its first play from scrimmage, but Nick Reeves was sacked on the play for a loss of 12 yards back to the 22-yard line, and the drive never got started.

Reeves, who is the only active quarterback currently on the roster due to Austin Hughey being out recovering from a slight concussion, was expected to take all the snaps for the game. He was hobbled late in the second quarter by an apparent knee injury that forced Aaron Bates into action at quarterback for the Red Devils. Reeves returned after halftime and completed the game to give the Red Devils a lift.

With the loss, the Red Devils fell to 2-6 overall and 1-4 in region play. Pendleton will come to town this Friday night in the final home game of the season, followed by a short trip to Greenville to face Carolina to close out the season.

Woodruff improved to 7-1 overall and 5-0 in region play. The Wolverines’ hopes of going far into postseason play rest squarely on the shoulders of a freshman quarterback. Who knows what lies ahead for this young quarterback? The only question is if the Wolverines can establish enough of a running game when they need it.

The Wolverines own 10 state titles and were once led by a quarterback named Tony Rice, who led Notre Dame to a national championship while he played for legendary coach Lou Holtz. The glory days may be coming back again for Woodruff.

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