After a stinging 42-23 defeat at Benedictine last Friday, the Liberty County High School football team will host Monroe on Friday in LCHS’ homecoming game.
Panther coach Kirk Warner said his team is slowly healing from a physical game against the Cadets last week. Notably questionable for the game is running back Jacquez Williams, who took a helmet to the lower leg last week, was taken out of the game and immediately to St. Joseph’s Hospital for evaluation. Initial X-rays seemed to clear any broken bones, but further testing is needed before he is cleared to play.
“Williams is walking around pretty well, but he is on crutches as a precaution until he meets with the orthopedic specialist this week,” Warner added.
Williams rushed for 43 yards before his injury. To date, he’s rushed for 315 yards and three touchdowns.
Tremel Walthour, Martial Washington and DeShawn Hudson also are questionable for Friday’s game due to existing injuries.
The Panthers (2-2) gave up 357 rushing yards with four touchdowns and 147 receiving yards with two passing TDs to BC.
The Panthers came out strong the first quarter against the Cadets, but BC’s hurry-up offense in the second quarter wore down Liberty. Warner said the team was working on more conditioning and staying hydrated and game-ready should another team try to run the hurry-up offense that caused some of the fatigue at BC.
Otherwise, Liberty played hardnosed football. Quarterback Jaalon Frazier was 11-of-23 passing for 156 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Richard LeCounte was 3-of-6 passing for 32 yards, had 92 of the Panthers’ 260 rushing yards and made three catches for 72 yards and a touchdown. Kevin Malwah rushed for 45 and a TD, and Elisha Polite rushed for 39.
Polite had six receptions for 66 yards and a TD.
Jacari Roberts led the defense in tackles with 14, caused a fumble and recovered two BC fumbles. LeCounte had 12 tackles. Calvin Holmes blocked a punt for a safety.
Warner said the Tornadoes (4-2 overall, 0-1 in Region 1-AAAA) are another formidable foe.
“Monroe is very athletic, they know how to run to the ball, and they are just as physical as Benedictine,” he said. “So it will be another physical battle, and hopefully we will heal up fairly quickly and be ready to get back to it. We are working on the mistakes we made. Most of those were mental mistakes because I think we played hard, but we need to fix ourselves before we can worry about Monroe.”
This is the second meeting between these two teams. Monroe won 14-6 last year in a tight matchup.
According to Liberty Count High School Panther booster club President Steve Gilbert, there will be a tailgate party before kick-off this Friday beginning at 5 p.m. There will be a face painting booth, fish fry and a live DJ spinning music. The game kicks-off at 7:30 p.m. Homecoming events will be presented at halftime.