Liberty comes up short in bid for victory

The emotion was obvious.

Exhausted players hit their knees, covering their faces. Some were sobbing.

Liberty Tech’s football team that hasn’t won a game since October of 2019 pushed Scotts Hill – another team previously winless for the season – to overtime.

And for a moment, Liberty seemed to have that victory in hand, only for Scotts Hill to take it out of the Crusaders’ hands with an extra point kick.

Scotts Hill won 7-6.

“I know we wanted this win, but think about where we are now compared to where we started,” head coach Robert Gillard told his team afterward and later clarifying the difference. “The first game of the year [against Jackson Central-Merry], we quit that night.

“We’ve kept fighting and playing hard every game since then just as hard if we’re down by a few scores as tonight when it went into overtime.”

The first 48 minutes of the game was a field position battle that saw both teams have chances but not be able to capitalize because of penalties or failed execution.

Scotts Hill got close to scoring in the third quarter on an interception returned inside the Liberty 20, but the Crusader defense kept them from converting a first down.

Scotts Hill moved the ball more consistently, but Liberty stopped them on fourth down if they got across the 50 or forced them to punt if they didn’t.

The Lions’ defense came up with three interceptions on the night to cause Liberty to think twice before throwing the ball late in the game.

When the game got into overtime, each team would have one opportunity to score starting on the 10-yard line. Liberty made it into the endzone first when sophomore Immanuel Hawkins made it in from a couple inches outside the goal line for a 6-0 lead.

The 2-point conversion attempt failed.

Scotts Hill scored on its first play to tie the game with a pass from Parker Savage to Liam Carrizales to tie the game.

Scotts Hill actually had to kick two PAT attempts to win the game. The first one was good but negated by a whistle before the snap as Liberty was called for off-sides.

The second try was good too, ending the game and Liberty’s hopes of ending its losing streak.

“That’s OK,” Gillard said. “We’ll get back in the lab, keep working, keep fighting. We’re turning this around.”

JCM 42, Adamsville 13: The Cougars are now 5-0 and 3-0 in Region 6-2A play after jumping out on Adamsville early for the lead and adding to it after halftime.

The Cardinals didn’t score a point after halftime.

Lakelvin Cole and Jonas Patterson both had touchdown runs for the Cougars in their homecoming win.

Jackson Christian 49, Tipton-Rosemark 14: The Eagles left no doubt in this Division II-A West matchup.

Jay’Len Mosley got the scoring started with a 19-yard touchdown run, and he’d catch two more scoring passes from quarterback Austin Kelley.

Deuce Lawrance fan for a couple more scores, and Jay Pirtle had one two.

A few guys coming off the bench got some touches and a chance to score as weool. One of them was Hudson Little, then Eli Smith accounted for three touchdowns.

The first one was on defense, an interception he return for a score. The next two were passes to Little and Rose for the final scores.

Lexington 24, South Side 21: South Side scored first, but the Lexington tied it up with a touchdown and then kicked a field goal for the lead.

The teams traded the lead with each score through the third quarter. That was when Lexington scored the final points of the game and held on for the Region 6-2A victory.

The loss drops South Side to 0-2 in region play.

Dyersburg 37, North Side 26: The Indians scored early, but the Trojans responded with three scores to go up two. Once Dyersburg built that lead, they stayed up for two scores for most of the remainder of the game.

Riverside 29, TCA 24: For the second year in a row, Riverside had to come back in the second half to beat Trinity Christian.

TCA lead for the first half and was up by two scores for a few minutes before the Panthers’ ground game took over and the defense did its job at forcing the Lions to fail to score on multiple possessions late.