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Liberty running back Teu Tai fights for yards during a game Friday at home against Green Valley. Liberty won 34-14.
Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009 | 12:03 a.m.
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Prep Sports Now
A week to remember
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Las Vegas Sun reporters Ray Brewer and Steve Silver break down last week's truly memorable high school football action and preview this Friday's upcoming games. They also discuss the latest NIAA realignment news.
Green Valley High caught Liberty off guard by pooching the opening kickoff Friday night and recovering the football deep in the Patriots’ territory.
The Patriots, however, dominated the rest of the way to make their first victory, at 34-14, over the Gators a resounding one.
The Southeast League opener for both teams was highlighted by Liberty’s powerful ground game, a quarterback’s debut and a few other wrinkles by first-year Patriots coach Rich Muraco.
For the past few weeks, Muraco watched 6-foot junior Chris Smith, a transfer from Coronado, run the team in practice.
Friday night, Smith ran the Patriots for real. He had a devastating effect on the game as Liberty unofficially chewed up 413 rushing yards.
“Without a running threat at quarterback, the spread offense just doesn’t work,” Muraco said. “We decided to make a change, to give him opportunities to carry the ball and put added stress on the defense.
“It seemed to work. I think he did a great job with the reads and keeping the ball. It definitely was something they weren’t prepared for.”
Smith ran 17 times for 96 yards, which included a 10-yard touchdown run. His sleight-of-hand kept Green Valley (2-2, 0-1) on its toes all evening.
“We never saw him before,” said Gators coach Matt Gerber. “He did a hell of a job. He’s a quick kid and runs the ball real well. It sure would have been nice to see him play before.”
Smith fell hard on his right hand after handing the ball off on one play, but he downplayed the wrap around his right thumb after the game.
“I depend on my line a lot,” he said. “They did very well this game. They worked as a family and gave me time … It was all family work tonight. All we have to do is work as a team, and we’ll go to the playoffs this year and win.”
Liberty (3-1, 1-0) stopped the Gators on the 15-yard line on the opening series of the game, and a botched snap on a field-goal attempt kept Green Valley off the scoreboard.
Led by the poised Smith, Liberty answered by driving 80 yards in six plays. Junior running back Teu Tai polished off that series with a 15-yard touchdown run.
The Patriots stopped Green Valley on three downs, and Tai capped Liberty’s ensuing 77-yard, nine-play possession with a four-yard TD run through the middle of his line.
This time, Smith faced a third-down situation. But on third-and-14 from the Gators’ 23, he found 6-4 senior Anthony Norris on the right sideline with a 19-yard lob.
“Just a deep ball to our tallest receiver. I didn’t have a good grip on the ball, but I really trust him to go up and get it,” Smith said.
“After that second TD, I really felt the game was ours,” Muraco said. “We were in their heads.”
Green Valley finished with 219 total yards of offense, and its biggest play was sophomore tailback Rakeem Griffin’s 39-yard touchdown run that cut the Gators’ deficit to 27-7 early in the fourth quarter.
But after both teams went three-and-out, Liberty freshman running back Niko Kapeli zipped 47 yards around his left side, cutting the corner and blazing by Green Valley’s defensive backs, to make it 34-7.
That came out of a double-wing formation, the first time the Patriots have shown that all season.
“We practiced that, too, for these guys. We decided to try it, and he busted it for a touchdown,” Muraco said.
Kapeli finished with 130 yards on 10 carries.
“Niko is one of our powerful freshmen,” Smith said. “The kid has speed, he has everything. Anything you want in a running back, Niko has. He goes hard in practice and he’s an outgoing kid. He’s ready to fight.”
Apparently, so are the rest of the Patriots, who have never been to the playoffs. Smith remembered that Foothill, next week’s foe, kept Liberty out of the playoffs a year ago.
“I guarantee you, next week Foothill won’t score,” Smith said.
He makes one start at quarterback and Smith is making such predictions?
“Yeah, I do all the time,” Smith said. “They won’t score.”
Watching the video on this game was disgusting. Green Valley's coaches are a joke. The crying and whining they did after the game was disgusting. The only thing worse than that was what I saw on the video of the game. Every time someone on the Gator line was getting beat, they started grabbing facemasks and yanking on them. Because so many of the players were doing this I'm inlcined to believe that this is the way they are coached. What a bunch of losers...and it starts from the coaches! Don't make any threats about how you're going kick Liberty's *** next year. That was such a no-class comment to make as a Gator coach. You got beat...take it and work on fixing your mistakes...plain and simple. Stop making comments you obviously cannot back up. You know who you are! People expect more maturity from coaches! Good job Patriots!
While I won't stick up for the comments that were made by a gator coach, I will say you are a little out of line with what you claimed to see. First, there was not one call of a face mask penalty all game. And if you didn't see, the gators were getting calls against them, some deserved and some not, all night long. Their QB was blatenly late hit after a play right in front of the referee and nothing was done. Of course the coach has a right to get upset. Most of all though, it was Liberty who was up by 3 scores with less than a minute left who was trying to punch in one more TD. That is the definition of classless. Any coach would be upset with that. Liberty deserved to win the game, but they need to learn how to do it with class. Stuff like that will come back to haunt them in the future.
Liberty is all class, madduck. But they're not suckers either! The boys aren't going to stand there and let the GV players keep doing what they were doing. It's not just coincidence that so many of our players have the same bruises and lacerations on their faces from helmet ripping/jerking. Check the video. And as for the blatent late hit, if a player gets two steps prior to hitting the QB...its a late hit. One step prior to the hit is legal. It accommodates the inability to stop on a dime when rushing a QB as he throws it. Otherwise the rule might as well be that rushing the QB is not allowed. Just because the dirty playing wasn't called doesn't mean it didn't happen (on either team). As I said...check the video. The eye in the sky doesn't lie and my claims, though "out of line", are susbtantiated by the game film. Even the Gorman coaches who came to watch made the same observations. And yes the GV coach has a right to be mad, but better judgement would expect him to keep his unnecessary and immature comments away from within earshot of players. He wasn't even man enough to say it directly to our coaches. Not once has anyone from Liberty's sideline said anything derogatory to a GV player...even when GV was running up the score on us last year. We have taken our losses quietly and with CLASS these past 6 years...with the understanding that we just have to keep working to get better. Since Liberty has opened, every team has considered a game with us as a "stat game". It means playing Liberty is a chance to increase team and individual statistics. That condescending view of Liberty is what GV came with. They fully expected a repeat of past games with Liberty. And when it became a reversal of roles, the team was shocked and angered by it all. Watch the game film. And while you're at it, watch last year's game and the games before that. See how much class GV displayed when they kept pushing to score right into the very last minute of the game. It's a shame since I myself have always been supportive of my nephews who play and have played GV football. Lastly, we took a knee in the last 20 seconds. Do not be mistaken...we could've run one more play to punch it in for another TD seeing as how the D-line was getting blown away all night long...but we didn't! If Liberty needs to learn how to win with class, then Green Valley needs to learn how to LOSE with class!