Clinging to an eight-point lead for much of the second half, Liberty put the game away with 14 points in 42 seconds to beat Park Hill South 35-13 on Friday night in Liberty.
The game-clinching sequence started with an Anthony Wenson 41-yard rushing touchdown at 4:06 of the fourth.
At 3:29, Jack Carbajal came up with a pick and took it inside the South 5-yard-line.
Five seconds later, Wenson scored again, and the lead was 22.
“We call that a 'big fiver,' where we can score twice in five minutes," Liberty head coach Chad Frigon said. "We were trying to get one all half and knew we could put them away if we could just get one. We finally made some plays. It was tough for us to get yards in the second half. Credit to our defense for throwing a shutout in the second half."
It took Liberty just two plays to bring the Blue Jay fans to their feet.
Wenson caught a screen pass and did the rest, racing 73 yards for a 7-0 lead less than one minute into the game.
Liberty doubled that lead on a quarterback sneak by Christian Kuchta at the 5:49 mark of the first.
South got a much-needed score with 8:56 to play in the second.
Briggs Bartosh's 1-yard run made it a one-score game.
With 5:09 to go in the half, the Panthers turned away Liberty on 4th-and-goal.
But the Blue Jays came right back, scoring less than four minutes later on a pass from Kuchta to Ace Bindel, and it was 21-7.
Just before the break Bartosh did it with his legs again, this time covering 39 yards on a nifty QB scramble.
The PAT was blocked, and Liberty took a 21-13 lead into halftime.
Wenson finished with 122 yards and two scores on the ground, while Kuchta threw for 200 yards, completing 11-20 passes for Liberty (3-2), who will play host to Staley (3-2) next week.
"We kept telling them to keep plugging away and we're going to get one of these," Frigon said. "I was proud of how hard our kids played tonight."
Bartosh racked up 115 yards on 13 carries for the Panthers (2-3). Park Hill South will take on district rival Park Hill (1-4) next week.
