Tyler Devine

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – Close only counts in horseshoes and the Liberty High football team found that out the hard way Friday night in a 21-10 loss to Western Dubuque.

The Lightning fell to 0-3 on the season and surrendered 434 total yards to the Bobcats.

“It sucks being 0-3,” head coach James Harris said. “The first game we didn’t play good enough. Our second game felt like we made a lot of momentum, didn’t get better. This game, moving in the right direction. We’ve got a lot of really good kids, a lot of people working really hard. I’m not doing a good enough job of getting us in the right direction.”

Liberty trailed 14-10 at halftime and came out firing in the second half, but struggled to finish drives and could not overcome three turnovers or capitalize on two Western Dubuque turnovers in the second half.

Senior running back Darius Willis-Newell led the Lightning down the field on their first possession of the second half, but the drive ended in a missed field goal.

Willis-Newell finished with 66 yards on 14 carries, the majority of which came in the second half.

On the ensuing possession, junior defensive back Wyatt Williams intercepted Western Dubuque quarterback Jack Clemens, but the Lightning drive stalled in their own territory.

“We struggled moving the ball early but then we started getting some momentum running the football, we started doing things well,” Harris said. “We got caught on that double move, that was a tough one. Being 0-3 sucks. I’ve got to get us right.”

Liberty High also struggled to find consistency in the passing game. Junior quarterback Tye Hughes finished 12-of-26 passing for 171 yards and a touchdown, but also threw two interceptions while running for his life most of the game.

Senior receiver Luke Meyers was the target of the night, racking up 136 yards receiving on eight receptions.

71 of Meyers’ yards came on one play in the first half.

Meyers caught a screen pass from Hughes, got around the corner and took it to the house with 1:09 left before halftime.

On defense, however, the Lightning allowed several Bobcat chunk plays and gave up 230 yards on the ground, 42 of which came late in the fourth quarter and allowed Western Dubuque to run the clock out.

The nail in the coffin was a 56-yard touchdown pass from Clemens to senior receiver Nick Bryant with 8:33 left to play.

Western Dubuque running back Spencer Zinn rushed 21 times for 188 yards a touchdown and fellow running back Grant Glausser had 59 yards on 14 carries.

“It’s there, it’s just putting it all together,” Harris said. “Sometimes when one guy misses an assignment, things look a lot worse than they are.”

                                    ICL                               WD

First Downs                 10                                     15

Rushes-Yards              28-61                             41-230

Passing Yards              171                                  204

Total Yards                   232                                 51

Comp-Att-Int               12-26-2                          14-26-2

Punts-Avg.                    4-35.8                            3-30

Fumbles-Lost               2-1                                  1-1

Penalties-Yards           5-40                               8-90

Western Dubuque        0      14    0    7  –  21

Liberty High                    3       7     0    0  –  10

ICL – Emerson Bennett 31 field goal

WD – Spencer Zinn 3 run (Caden Abresch kick)

WD – Glausser 2 run (Abresch kick)

ICL – Luke Meyers 71 pass from Tye Hughes (Bennett kick)

WD – Nick Bryant 56 pass from Jack Clemens (Abresch kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – Liberty High: Willis-Newell 14-61, Hughes 14-(-5). Western Dubuque: Zinn 21-188, Glausser 14-59, Kaleb Reed 2-6, Clemens 4-(-23).

PASSING – Liberty High: Hughes 12-26-1. Western Dubuque: Clemens 14-26-1.

RECEIVING – Liberty High: Meyers 8-136, Griffin Kraft 2-21, Ja’Quez Hall 2-14. Western Dubuque: Bryant 5-122, Andrew Oltmanns 5-60, Caleb Klein 1-20, Daviyon Gaston 1-6, Zinn 1-2, Tucker Nauman 1-(-3).

Did you enjoy this subscription free article? Help keep Your Prep Sports free by donating.