It’s been nearly 11 months since the Liberty County Panthers took to the surface of Donell Woods Stadium/Kirk Warner Field for a home football game.

The Panthers will do that when they host the McIntosh County Academy Buccaneers on Friday night for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff.

Liberty’s last home game was an October 24, 2025 matchup against Beach. Since then, they ended the 2025 regular season at Calvary Day, went on the road to Cairo for a state playoff game and have opened this season with three straight road games.

“It’s been a while since we had a home game,” Panthers coach Tony Glazer said. “I know the kids are excited and looking forward to playing at home.”

The Panthers, 1-2, picked up their first win of the 2026 season with a resounding 43-19 win over Johnson on Friday night.

Noel Best ran 17 times for 178 yards, and Jaeir Roberts ran for a score and threw for another. Liberty’s special teams also got into the act, blocking a punt for a safety as the Panthers built a 29-6 lead at halftime.

“We just keep focusing on our end goal, which is to get a little better each week,” Glazer said. “There were a couple of minutes we didn’t play our best but we tightened it back up and played much cleaner football. You want to win, obviously, but you want to be clean at the same time too.”

Best’s 9-yard run with 8:19 to go in the first quarter got the Panthers on the board. Roberts scored from 3 yards out on the next possession for a 13-0 lead.

The Panthers blocked a punt on the second play of the second quarter, and the ball rolled through the back of the end zone for a safety, putting Liberty in front 15-0.

Liberty started its ensuing possession, after Johnson’s free kick, at the Atomsmashers’ 45yard line, but on the first play, Zaevon Gray took a pass and ran it back 61 yards for a pick-six.

The Panthers answered right back. Roberts hit Damir Sherman for 20 yards on thirdand-8, and Best took care of the remaining 29 yards, bouncing off a tackler in the backfield before racing past the remaining Johnson defenders.

Kalale Green’s 3-yard run with 1:17 left in the half capped the first-half outburst.

Liberty dominated the opening 24 minutes, gaining 205 yards of offense and holding the Smashers to -3 yards total. Johnson also did not record a first down, while the Panthers racked up 13 first downs.

But Johnson tried to get back into the game with consecutive scores. Shamari King darted 37 yards on the first drive of the third quarter for a touchdown. After Liberty’s only three-andout, Jayden Young ended a 10play with a 3-yard touchdown run, pulling the Atomsmashers within 29-19 with 1:41 left in the third quarter.

“It was a wild five minutes to start the third quarter,” Glazer said. “We had a couple of plays we had to fix. But other than that, we tried to work on fixing the little things that are holding us from being the team we want to be.”

Liberty responded again, as Roberts found Aaron Brown for a 20-yard strike with 7:57 remaining in the game, and Best sealed the win with a 6-yard run late in the game.

The Buccaneers improved to 2-1 with a 19-0 win over Georgia Military College. That followed a 25-7 loss to Charlton County.

Against GMC, Josh Griffin ran for a touchdown and added an 82-yard interception return for a touchdown. Earnest McIntosh also had a touchdown run as the Bucs finished with 179 yards on the ground.

Griffin accounted for the lone Bucs’ TD in the loss to the Indians and had 70 yards rushing on 11 attempts. The Indians got a defensive score, running a fumble back for a TD, and one special teams, blocking a punt for a touchdown.

Though it’s a home game for the Panthers, it’s also one of the shorter road trips the Bucs will take this season. The two teams already know each other well – they often square off in summer padded camps or in 7-on-7s.

“The kids live near each other,” Glazer said. “A lot of the kids know each other and we’ve done stuff every summer with McIntosh, so we have some familiarity with each other’s teams.”