Wentric Williams III wasn’t about to Liberty go down quietly during the Blue Jays’ road tilt on Friday against Lee’s Summit West. The 6-foot, 195-pound bruising running back erased an early 14-point deficit with two touchdowns in the second quarter and found pay dirt two more times in the second half to power the Blue Jays to a 28-20 win over the Titans.
“The past three games, we’ve gone through a lot of adversity, so we didn’t really get down on ourselves. We know what we can control,” Williams III said. “We know the problems that we have and the things that we can fix to get it working, and that’s what we did. We fixed the little things and got it going.”
Williams III rushed for 140 yards and three downs on 30 carries and four catches for 27 yards and another score. As Williams III served as the Blue Jays’ work horse offensively, the Liberty defense more than did its part to seize control as the game went on. Liberty limited Lee’s Summit West to just one offensive touchdown and 201 yards of total offense.
“Everyone was just at the ball. When the ball was in the air, everyone was just swarming to it,” Ricky Ahumaraeze, who forced and recovered a fumble, said. “We were playing as a team. It felt really good to see my teammates wanting to get people down and get the ball.”
Ahumaraeze played both ways for the Blue Jays and made a critical 8-yard catch on 3rd and 6 with three minutes left to extend a Liberty drive with the Blue Jays clinging to a 21-20 lead. Williams III finished off the drive with a 2-yard touchdown run.
“He plays hard every single snap,” Liberty coach Chad Frigon said. “My favorite thing about Wentric is when things weren’t going well our first couple of series, he was the one being positive and leading the charge in our huddle. That keeps our guys going so we can have a second half like we had.”
While the Lee’s Summit West offense struggled to string together first downs for much of the second half, quarterback Jameson Hardin gave his team a chance to tie with when the Titans got the ball with 1:25 to go. Hardin connected with Brock Kobel for a 23-yard pass with eight seconds to play to put the ball on the Liberty 23-yard line. However, Hardin’s two shots to the end zone fell incomplete to seal the win for the Blue Jays.
“We had several mistakes in this game all around—offense, defense and some on special teams. We’ve got to clean it up,” Lee’s Summit West coach Vinny Careswell said. “In our conference, you can’t make mistakes. I think we can clean it up. We’ve got a great team and we can move on.”
Although Liberty handed Lee’s Summit West its first loss of the season, Titans defensive back and kick returner Bryan Haney ensured that Careswell would have several things to smile about when he reviews the game tape. Haney jump-started the Titans with a 48-yard punt return for a touchdown in the first quarter, and then added a 93-yard pick six early in the second quarter to give Lee’s Summit West a 14-0 edge.
“Bryan Haney is an athlete. He’s a 300-meter hurdle state champion and brings that speed to the field,” Careswell said. “He’s a competitor. Once he gets the ball, he has no fear and he’s going straight ahead. You’ve got to have a crew to take him down.”
Haney wasn’t done, though. Midway through third quarter, the 5-foot-11, 160-pound senior recovered a muffed fair catch to give the Titans the ball at the Liberty 33-yard line. The Titans capitalized a few plays later when Hardin hit Kobel for a 33-yard touchdown pass to put Lee’s Summit West back in front 20-14.
The missed extra point proved to be costly, though, as Williams III found pay dirt from 5 yards out on the ensuing drive to give Liberty its first lead at 21-20 late in the third quarter.
Still, Haney wasn’t done putting a firm handprint on the game to give the Titans a good chance in the fourth. Haney hauled in his second interception and returned it 34 yards and into Liberty territory. However, the Liberty defense forced a turnover on downs to set the stage for Williams III and company to eat up the clock late in the fourth.
“We knew we were going to have to run the football to win this football game. We had some ups and downs with it,” Frigon said. “We had some turnovers and had some times where we went for it and didn’t get it. At the end, though, we put together some really solid drives. We were able to run the football and convert some really important third and fourth downs to keep drives alive.”
The Blue Jays (2-2) will try to keep rolling when they play host to Blue Springs South at 7 p.m. Friday. The Titans (3-1) will aim to get back into the win column at 7 p.m. on Friday in a road contest with Ray-Pec.
