Liberty County High School will play Windsor Forest tonight at Memorial Stadium in Savannah to finish its Region 3-AAAA schedule for the season. the game was originally scheduled for Friday but a conflict with the stadium availability forced the Knights to move the game up for today.
The Panthers (5-3 overall, 2-1 in region) are looking to bounce back after a tough 42-20 loss to Thomson during last Friday’s senior-night home game. The loss meant Liberty must wait and see how the rest of region play unfolds to find out what seed it receives for the playoffs.
The Bulldogs took away the Panthers’ passing game last Friday, holding LCHS quarterbacks Jaalon Frazier and Richard LeCounte to a combined 33 yards on 3-of-9 passing.
Jacquez Williams rushed for 177 yards and two touchdowns, LeCounte had 152 yards and a touchdown, and Elisha Polite had 15 rushing yards. Polite led the team in receptions, making two catches for 33 yards.
The offense struggled with ball control, however, committing five turnovers.
The Knights are struggling this season, sporting a 1-6 overall mark and 0-2 region record. But Liberty knows better than to discount the Knights, especially in their last region contest of the year.
“I know they have a new coach (Greg Busby), and I’m pretty sure he has them trying to play physical football and be a lot more organized,” Panther coach Kirk Warner said. “If we play mistake-free Liberty County football, we should have a pretty good game plan set for them.”
The Panthers will have to play without key starters Jarquel Richardson-Frazier and Jacari Roberts. Richardson-Frazier dislocated his shoulder last week, and Roberts has a shoulder separation known as an AC-joint sprain.
Warner said the focus this week is also on the kicking team.
“Preferably, I would like to be able to positional kick it and get the ball down by the 20- to 15-yard line and let our coverage team run on them,” he said. “But right now, we are having to blast and squib it, and even if they catch the ball at the 40, that’s just too good of a field position to give to other teams.”
Kickoff is at 7 p.m.