Scotlandville adds to the win column again, defeats Liberty Magnet 48-28

In a big game for both teams, the Liberty Magnet Patriots looked to get a win to stay in the playoff race as the Scotlandville Hornets wanted to win on Homecoming in front of their own crowd. Liberty is coming off of two straight home losses to Catholic and Woodlawn, and Scotlandville wants to get back into the win column after their loss to Zachary last week.

Scotlandville kicked off to start, and the Patriots took that opportunity to silence the home crowd. The offense would end up getting a 32-yard passing touchdown off of that first drive to lead 7-0. The Hornets would try to respond, but QB “Zae” Teasett threw deep and got picked off at Liberty’s twelve yard line. Liberty would not capitalize off of the turnover, and create their own by having their punt blocked. Scotlandville would score an eight yard rushing touchdown and go for two after penalties, and go up 8-7. Liberty took this personal, and scored on a 21-yard passing touchdown to go back up 14-8 on a drive that lasted a minute and eleven seconds. The Hornets follow up by punting after three plays, letting the Patriots open up the second quarter.

After starting on Scotlandville’s 47 yardline, the Patriots offensive line would allow two sacks in four plays and turn it over on downs. Despite recovering a fumble on the very next play, Liberty would go three and out to get zero points off of Scotlandville turnovers on the night. Despite the fumble, the Hornets would run the ball down Liberty’s throat to score from three yards out to go back up at the half 15-14.

I don’t know what Coach Cook said in the locker room, but his players came out for the second half with a new energy. On the first play, the starting kickoff of the quarter and the half, the Hornets would take it all the way to the endzone, going up 22-14. the Patriots would try to counter, but wind up punting. After another couple series of punts, Scotlandville would burst out to score a 77-yard rushing touchdown and go up 28-14 after missing the PAT. Another few scoreless posessions later, and a 48-yard rushing touchdown by the Hornets would put them up even further, now 34-14.

The ensuing kickoff would go out of bounds, putting Liberty in a prime position. The Patriots would capitalize, using a flea-flicker to try and make the game competitive once more while down 34-20. Both teams would counter with scores, as both would run for a touchdown and Zae would pass for a 31-yard passing TD in a very methodical drive. After that final touchdown by the Hornets, players from both traded punches that lead to an all-out brawl. A player from each team ended up being ejected with about four minutes remaining, and no more points would be scored.

In the end, it was a good showing for the Hornets. After that early interception, Zae made a few mistakes in his passing game. The ground game was phenomenal, rushing a total of 19 times throughout the game for a total of 237 yards and 5 touchdowns. Paving the way for all of that was the lineman up front, doing a good job of keeping the offense going. All of this isn’t to say that there were downsides. Penalties put the defense in tough positions, special teams was problematic at times, and the fight at the end will make any coach outraged. The Hornets still got the win, but there is work to be done for next week’s game at Central.