It took two overtimes for the #23 Liberty Flames to defeat the Presbyterian College football team, 27-20, in action this afternoon at Williams Stadium in front of 11,673 fans in Lynchburg, Va.
The Blue Hose fall to 2-6 overall and 1-2 in the Big South, while the Flames improve to 6-3, 4-0.
Liberty won the toss and elected to receive first and after the kick-off went out of bounds, the Flames started on their own 40-yard line. Liberty drove to the PC one-yard line several drives later, highlighted by a 32-yard run by Aldreakis Allen and an 18-yard catch to Chris Summers. The PC defense proved too much as Liberty went backwards in three plays, forcing the Flames to kick an 18-yard field goal, which was successful, to go up 3-0 with 11:22 on the clock.
Despite decent field position for PC in its opening drive, the Blue Hose were only able to gain 24 yards in six plays, despite a 14-yard run by Ryan Singer, and punted away into the end zone for a touchback.
The next drive for each team stalled, with Liberty's third drive running into the second quarter. After Liberty's Mike Brown opened the quarter with a 26-yard run that took the ball Just into PC territory, he through an interception to Josh Polk, the first of his career. It was his second drive changing play in as many games, as he forced a fumble at Georgia Southern.
PC was unable to convert the turnover into points and was forced to punt away for the third time. Both defenses played well with PC and Liberty forced to punt in each of the next two drives.
With 5:41 remaining in the half, Liberty drove from the 20-yard line to the PC 28-yard line before the Blue Hose defense came up big again, forcing a Flame 45-yard field goal attempt, which was wide.
PC took over with 28 seconds left and ran the clock out to head into the locker room only down by three, 3-0.
While PC gave up 115 yards on the ground in the first half, 58 of those came on two drives of 32 and 26 yards.
PC scored the game's first touchdown when Singer, in just the second play of the second drive of the half, ran a season-high 74 yards on a quarterback draw to give the Blue Hose the 7-3 lead. His run was the longest TD run of his career and longest for PC in its Division I history.
PC recovered the ensuing on-sides kick at the Liberty 49-yard line but could not muster any offense and was forced to punt away, giving the Flames the ball back at their own nine yard line. The Liberty drive stalled, leading to another punt which gave PC the ball on its own 22-yard line. It was a short drive for the Blue Hose after they lost the ball off a bad snap two plays in.
Liberty took over on the PC 32-yard line, but on the fourth play Brown's pass was intercepted by Matthan Burton, the second of his career, who ran it back 32 yards to the Liberty 42-yard line. The Blue Hose were stopped from getting into the end zone but settled for a 29-yard field goal by Aaron Mayes to go up 10-6 with 9:35 on the clock.
Liberty, in its next drive, started at its own 40-yard line and took the ball to the one yard line before being stopped by PC, getting the ball back after CeeJay Harris and Donnelle Williams stopped a Brown rush up the middle on fourth down.
PC took over with 3:12 remaining but was unable to move the ball and punted it away with 2:20 left. Ervin Garner caught the punt and took it 41 yards to set up a six-yard touchdown rush by Allen, giving Liberty the 13-10 advantage with 1:26 to go.
PC responded with a seven-play, 50-yard drive that ate up all but four seconds and resulted in a 22-yard field goal by Mayes to tie the game at 13-13
The resulting kick-off ran the clock out and the game went into overtime.
PC went on offense first in the first overtime and immediately scored off a 25-yard catch to Ruff to give the Blue Hose the 20-13 lead.
Liberty responded with a six-play drive, resulting in a game-tying touchdown off an Allen three-yard rush.
In the second overtime, Liberty went on offense first, and in a repeat of the first play of the first overtime, the Flames hit Summers for a 25-yard TD catch to go up 27-20.
PC took over and the Liberty defense held tight as the Blue Hose were unable to hit the end zone in six plays and the game ended with the Flames winning 27-20.
PC totaled 401 yards of total offense, 287 coming from the ground and 114 from the air. Byrd and Singer netted 111 and 108 yards rushing, respectively, while Michael Ruff caught two passes for a team-leading 36 yards. Mayes recorded two field goals with a long of 29 on the afternoon.
Donnelle Williams led the PC defense with 18 tackles, including 10 unassisted. Cedric Byrd, Justin Bethel and Harris ended the game with 11 apiece. Brian Davis only posted two tackles but both were for a loss and one was for a sack.
Liberty finished with 468 yards of total offense, 264 in passing and 204 on the ground. Allen led the Flames with two touchdowns and 131 net yards, while Summers had six catches for 756 yards to lead from the air.
PC is in action next Saturday, November 5, at Coastal Carolina. Kick-off is set for 6 p.m. and can be seen on the Big South Network sponsored by State Farm and heard on WLBG 860-AM, with the pre-game show starting at 4:30 p.m.
