Liberty Kicks Things Off With a Bang

At 5 feet 8 and 243 pounds, Liberty junior lineman and place kicker Jordan Hunter never claimed he was fast, but his sluggish tip-toe to the opening kickoff should have been a sign for visiting George Washington-Danville.

Hunter tapped the ball just past the required 10 yards for a successful onside kick that sophomore Eric Whitmer recovered, sparking a 21-point first quarter in Liberty's 41-14 Virginia AAA Northwest Region Division 5 championship victory.

"We got out there and I saw that they had an open field to the left side," Hunter said. "I was supposed to lob it up, but I decided that I had that side open so I kicked it there. I didn't tell my teammates, but we jumped on it. Coach looked at me and he was mad, but he said, 'Good job.' "

Liberty took advantage of Hunter's momentum-grabbing gamble, capping a four-play, 47-yard march with an eight-yard touchdown plunge from senior Derrick Lee and then a two-point conversion from Lee that put the Eagles up 8-0 with 10 minutes left in the first quarter.

"[The kick was] huge because everyone had jitters and to come out and get the ball off them like that, it was huge," said Corey Lillard, who rushed for 129 of his game-high 202 yards and two of his three touchdowns in the first half. "Words don't describe this, man, words don't describe this."

The region championship is the 14-year-old Bealeton school's third in four tries.

Liberty (10-2) built an early lead by converting Danville miscues, turning Danville's wind-hampered 29-yard punt into Nick Potts's 19-yard touchdown pass to James Rogers, and Danville's ensuing muffed kickoff into Lillard's 14-yard touchdown rumble that put the Eagles up 21-0 with 5:07 left in the first quarter. Danville (7-5) lost four of five fumbles and had an interception, totaling five turnovers.

Lillard opened the second half with a 59-yard touchdown run to put Liberty up 34-7.

The first-quarter kick helped Liberty earn the early momentum, but it also kept the ball away from a Danville wing-T attack that had rushed for 3,991 yards behind Virginia Tech-bound senior running back David Wilson -- the sixth-ranked running back in the country.

"We did it as a team," said Liberty senior defensive lineman Chris Foddrell, a 6-foot, 292-pounder who dropped Wilson for losses on his first two carries. "That pumped up everybody out here."

Wilson scored on his ninth touch to cut into Liberty's lead, but threatening to score with less than two minutes before the half, Danville fumbled on the 1-yard line, ending the half with 108 yards total offense to Liberty's 230.

Liberty 41 GW-Danville 14 Up Next: Liberty will play the winner of today's 1 p.m. Central Region championship between Dinwiddie (10-1) and Hanover (8-3). Back for the Bulldogs: Liberty, which moved up to AAA two years ago, lost 28-19 to Stone Bridge in the 2003 AA Region II Division 4 region final. The Eagles will move back down to AA next season, making a potential rematch with Division 5 power Stone Bridge in the state title game the Eagles' last shot at revenge.