It seemed readily apparent Friday afternoon at Happy State Bank Stadium that West Plains and Lubbock-Cooper Liberty are two teams which will still be playing after the regular season ends come November.
That’s what made this game between two Class 4A teams who won’t meet again that much more bittersweet – yet entertaining.
In a non-district game which lived up to the hype, it came down to the final minute, as Liberty scored a touchdown with 46 seconds left and opted to play for the win with a 2-point conversion attempt. The gamble paid off, as Cy Leach hit Koleman Hendrix on successful pass which gave the Patriots a thrilling 29-28 victory and kept them unbeaten on the season at 4-0.
That cliche about how it was a shame either team had to lose rang especially true in a rare afternoon game that should have had a prime time spotlight. The two teams jostled for position all afternoon before Liberty finally reigned at the end.
If anybody needs a blueprint on how to start a successful high school football program, they could do worse than watch a film of the game between third-year Liberty and fifth-year West Plains (2-2).
“It’s incredible how in four years how playing a teams like West Plains is just so good,” Liberty coach Joe Sexton said. “They’re good across the board. They’ve got awesome coaches and it was a great win on the road for sure.”
West Plains had taken a 28-21 lead with 5:29 left in the game on a 20-yard scoring run by Nate Alvarez on a reverse. That ended a drive where the Wolves, as would figure, were carried by senior running back Slade Russell, who began the season with his fourth straight 200-yard game, going forn 206 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries.
That might have been enough against another opponent. The two teams were almost dead even statistically, but for the second time this season, the Wolves were left wondering what might have been.
Combined with 42-35 loss to Class 3A power Wall in the season opener, West Plains has been within a score of two more impressive wins this season.
“I’m super proud of the guys and I’m super proud of the fight,” West Plains coach Jeff Lofton said. “We did a lot of things right, but it boils down to mistakes made and you can’t have those. We’ll correct everything and it will be a positive. (Liberty’s) a quality deep playoff run type team.”
The Patriots proved that on what would be their game-winning drive. They opened at their own 28-yard line, but benefited from a personal foul penalty for a late hit on quarterback Cy Leach which moved the ball up 15 yards.
Liberty moved the ball to the West Plains 31 and faced a fourth-and-four with just over a minute left and a do or die play to keep the game alive. The Patriots did it, as Leach hit JJ Thompson for a 30-yard gain to give them a first and goal at the West Plains 1.
Talon Wilcox ran it in on the next play to make it 28-27, and the Patriots didn’t even call timeout to decide about running a 2-point play.
“We work on those 2-point plays all the time in practice,” Sexton said. “I didn’t want (the Wolves) to have the ball again to tell you the truth. We were going to try to end that thing right there. I’ve just got all the faith in the world in our guys so we decided to go for it.”
Leach and Hendrix made the decision pay off. On a rollout to the left, Leach found an open Hendrix for what proved to be the winning points.
“I knew what the coverage was going to be an who was going to be there,” said Leach, who threw for 246 yards and a touchdown. “It’s just digging deep and seeing what we’re made of. We practice those situations all the time and it came into play. It gives us so much confidence to beat a great team like West Plains, it’s like a playoff game.”
It wasn’t quite over with yet, though. The Wolves got the ball back and with three second left they got the ball to the Liberty 44 and had a choice.
They opted to have Gipson Gnagy try a 62-yard field goal with the wind at his back, and while the kick was online it fell several yards short, preserving the win for the Patriots.
“Our non-district schedule there’s no easy games,” Lofton said. “You want to be tested. As long as you’re healthy you can have a nondistrict schedule like this. Once you go into district you’ve seen almost everything.”
Liberty took the opening kickoff and drove inside the West Plains 20-yard line, but West Plains defensive tackle Kylan Akins sacked Cy Leach and forced a fumble which was recovered by Uriah Cruz. The Wolves then drove into Liberty territory and the Patriots returned the favor when Rylan Thomas forced a fumble on a sack of Timber Russell and Braxton Bitar recovered.
It wasn’t until midway through the second quarter that anybody cashed in on a drive into enemy territory. Taking advantage of a targeting penalty, the Patriots capped a drive on a 1-yard scoring run by Kaiden Joseph for a 7-0 lead.
Liberty then forced the first punt of the day by West Plains and took over in good field position. Two plays later, Leach hit a wide open Jamison Gonzalez on a 60-yard scoring pass where the nearest defender seemed to be in Potter County to boost the lead to 14-0.
That’s where West Plains passed a character test.
“To scratch from 14 against a team like this is super encouraging,” Lofton said. “We responded after one of our best dudes got ejected for targeting. Those guys rallied and it was next man up. It doesn’t matter who goes down we’ve got to fight, and we did.”
It took only 18 seconds for West Plains to make a game of it. On the first play after the ensuing kickoff, Russell took a handoff, found a hole in the left side and sprinted 82 yards past the Liberty defense for a score to cut it to 14-7.
The Wolves defense came out inspired and forced a three-and-out on Liberty’s next possession. Timber Russell hit Kelby Williams for a 33-yard gain, eventually setting up Paxton Chandler’s 5-yard touchdown run to tie it at 14 with 1:07 left in the half.
Liberty put together a good drive and with three seconds left, the Patriots were in position to take the halftime lead on a 29-yard field goal attempt by Randen Schlumpf. However, Akins capped a huge first half by blocking the kick to keep the score tied heading into the locker room.
Photo gallery by Roy Wheeler:
