Liberty Blanks Gardner-Webb, 31-0, Saturday Afternoon
November 17, 2007 | Football
BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. – Liberty scored on its first three
possessions Saturday, and rolled to a 31-0 win over Gardner-Webb in
Ernest W. Spangler Stadium.
The Flames (8-3, 4-0 Big South) won their first Big South
Conference title in the process, and were victorious in Boiling
Springs for the first time since October 18, 1980.
Gardner-Webb (5-6, 2-2 Big South) was shut out for the first time
since Sept. 27, 2003 at Furman (45-0) – a streak of 51 games
in a row. GWU hadn't been shut out at home since a 14-0 loss to
Newberry in 1985.
The Flames struck early and often, turning a GWU interception into
a quick scoring drive of five plays and 40 yards. Brock Smith found
Brandon Turner wide open over the middle for a 14-yard scoring
strike to cap the drive with 11:38 to play in the first
quarter.
Rashad Jennings took a screen pass and rumbled 52 yards to the
house on the first play of Liberty's second drive, pushing the lead
to 14-0 with 10:08 to play in the quarter. The Flames then went 54
yards in eight plays – capped by a Smith to Chris Stokes swing
pass from five yards out.
The 21-0 lead grew by three points just before halftime, as Noah
Greenbaum capped off a methodical, 17-play, 8:36 drive to give
Liberty a 24-0 lead heading into the locker room.
Gardner-Webb got an interception from Daniel Cooke to start the
third quarter, but could not move very deep into Liberty territory.
Zach Terrell then gave the Flames their final score, going in from
three yards with 8:43 to play in the third quarter. That run
finished off a nine-play, 96-yard march that took just 4:10.
GWU drove as deep as the 20-yard line just once in the game, but
fumbled the football away early in the fourth quarter to hamper any
chances of finding paydirt.
Gardner-Webb was limited to just 187 total offensive yards – a
season-low total – and had just 16 yards rushing on 20 carries
(0.8 yards per rush). Devin Campbell came off the bench to complete
14-of-20 passes for 118 yards.
Duvuaghn Flagler caught five passes – all in the second half
– and finished tied for second in school history with Hall of
Famer Rodney Robinson in career receptions (188).
Liberty passed and ran its way to a balanced 469 yards of total
offense on 79 plays, getting 255 yards on the ground (114 from
Jennings) and 214 yards through the air. Smith completed his first
nine passes in the game, and was 14-of-24 for 204 yards and three
scores.
In addition to Jennings, Liberty got 86 yards on nine carries from
Terrell.
Freshman linebacker Jeffrey Williams finished with a career-best 17
total tackles for GWU (nine solo) and Mario Brown added 12 from his
linebacker post. Brian Johnston made seven stops and had 3.5
tackles for loss – giving him the top single-season mark in
Big South Conference history in that category (24.0 TFL).
Gardner-Webb's season is complete. Liberty will await word of a
potential at-large berth to the 2007 NCAA Football Championship
Subdivision Playoffs. The field will be announced Sunday, Nov. 18
at 3:30 pm on ESPNU.
| Box Score |
