Liberty Hangs On To Undefeated Season (10-8-24)
By: Ty Tracy
All Photo Credit: Brynne Smith-LMS Network
Lynchburg, Virginia—Tuesday night’s match in Conference USA at the Liberty Flames back at home to take on FIU Panthers in Scott Stadium. Liberty coming off a 12-day off period due to their game against the Appalachian St Mountaineers being canceled due to Hurricane Helene flooding and destroying people’s homes in Boone, NC two weeks ago.
The Panthers’ defense was struggling to stop Liberty’s Head Coach Jamie Chadwell’s run game the entire night as they finished the game with a season-high 281 yards in rushing for 50 carries averaging 5.6 yards per carry. The Flames Running back Quinton Cooley was a workhorse Tuesday night as they had a hard time slowing him down rushing for 175 yards with 2 TD’s on the ground averaging 6 yards per carry. Head Coach Jamie Chadwell mentioned in the post-game that they didn’t have a game plan run the ball a lot with Quinton Cooley until the coach made late game decision to keep feeding him the ball especially in the overtime while RB Billy Lucas suffered an ankle injury in the fourth Quarter. Cooley had 100-plus yards rushing for the fourth time this season and 11th in his career along with a career-high of touches having 29 carries.
Cooley managed to put Liberty up by a doubt-digit lead making it 24-10 in the fourth quarter after his nine-yard rushing TD before QB Kaidon Salter scored from a 20-yard rushing giving the Flames 17-10 lead right when the first half was over until the Panthers made a 14 point deficit comeback tying the game 24-24 to put the game in overtime when RB Kejon Owens and QB Keyone Jenkins scored on back to back drives that resulted into touchdowns. QB Kaidon Salter was able to rush for two TD’s on the ground, rushing for 73 yards for 12 carries. The Flames’ pass game offense wasn’t a big factor in Tuesday’s night victory, only throwing for 125 yards and completing 56% of his passes. The Flames decided to get the ball first and score from Kaidon Salter’s nine-yard yard rushing TD giving them the lead 31-24. The Flames defense came up big in overtime when CB Christian Bodnar came off a blitz off the edge forcing a ball game strip sack ending the game for Liberty 31-41 extending their regular winning streak to 17 games making for the longest active winning.
Coach Chadwell mentioned that their pass game was not accurate Tuesday night and weren’t connecting on some of their passes that they have always been from the timing or game speed. But the Panthers’ defense dropped a lot of defenders back cutting off the explosive plays that Liberty capitalized on a lot when they got the opportunity. But he stated in the post-game that “As a head coach, we have to learn to start and finish a game throughout all four quarters.”
Liberty is 5-0 and 3-0 in conference play after Tuesday night wins. Jamie Chadwell and the Flames have won 12 straight home games and 20 consecutive matchups with Conference USA foes (at the time of meeting). The Flames will travel down to Kennesaw, GA on Oct 23rd to take on the Kennesaw St Owls on a Wednesday night then prepare for another Wednesday night match on Oct 30th against the Jacksonville St Gamecocks.
