Liberty avenges Region III loss to Lee in shootout

BEDFORD — As time wound down in the first half, with Robert E. Lee seeking to break a 14-14 tie at Liberty High in a Region III, Division 3, semifinal rematch with the Minutemen, Anthony Reynolds made a one-handed interception of a 20-yard pass by Lee quarterback Devante White near his own goal line.

The ball was tipped around twice by teammates before Reynolds picked it off and returned it 100-yards for an improbable score that gave Liberty a lead it wouldn’t relinquish in a 35-28 triumph.

Liberty coach Chris Watts knew Reynolds was headed for the end zone after he picked up a block by Matt Kerr around midfield.

“That was huge,” Watts said.

He and the Minutemen reserves ran with Reynolds, on the opposite side of the field, with Watts holding up one finger, Reynolds’ number, signaling an extra-point kick by Zach Rawlins. That gave Liberty a 21-14 lead just four seconds before halftime, and swung the momentum in the Minutemen’s favor.

“That was tough,” Lee coach David Tibbs said. “We weren’t expecting that.

“The reason we threw into the end zone was we had no timeouts left,” Tibbs added, noting he would have settled for a 37-yard field goal attempt by All-Region III kicker Dustin Burdick had the pass fallen incomplete.

It was Reynolds’ fifth touchdown return of either a kickoff or an interception this season, and was a deciding factor in a back-and-forth battle that turned into a second-half shootout.

“It reminded me of the regional championship game against Gretna in 2002,” Watts said of a game the Minutemen won 42-35 en route to the Group AA, Division 3, state championship.

Virginia senior Vic Hall was the Hawks’ quarterback back then, before guiding Gretna to back-to-back state titles in 2003 and 2004.

White, who ran for nearly 2,000 yards and threw for nearly 1,000 this season, resembled Hall on Friday night. He also looked a lot like Dae’Quan Scott, the quarterback now playing at JMU who guided the Fighting Leeman to a 35-7 victory over the Minutemen in last season’s regional semifinal.

He rushed 27 times for 193 yards and completed 10 of 19 passes for a season-high 199 yards and four touchdowns, starting with an 80-yard strike on a heave that hit Chris Williams in stride down the left sideline that tied the game at 7.

That came one play after Malcolm McCoy sprinted right up the middle 36 yards for a touchdown on Liberty’s fourth play from scrimmage.

White completed third-and-goal and fourth-and-goal touchdown passes to Terrell Mickens in the second and third quarters, respectively. The first, lofted in the back right corner of the end zone, put Lee (8-4) on top 14-7, and the next, following a 61-yard run by Reynolds up the left sideline on the fourth play of the second half, came on a crossing route over the middle that trimmed Liberty’s lead to 28-21.

“You knew it was going to come down to who scored last,” Tibbs said.

After the teams traded touchdowns—Liberty on a 45-yard run by Thomas Clark set up by Kerr’s 27-yard pass from Tyler Bowyer and Lee on a six-play, 88-yard drive capped by a 24-yard pass from White to Williams—the Leemen had one final chance to tie it up.

But they started from their own 4, where Joe McDonagh recovered a fumble on a bad exchange by Liberty quarterback Kody Outhong, who was filling in for an injured Tyler Bowyer.

Outhong had marched the Minutemen from their 46 down to Lee’s 3 in four rushing plays — an 11 yard run by Clark, eight-yard carry by McCoy and 30-yard burst by Reynolds down to the 5 — before the fumble prevented Liberty from clinching the victory.

“We’d have liked to have finished it right there, but we were able to get a big stop when we needed to,“ Watts said.

After White picked up two first downs to the 37, the Leemen stalled at the 42 and were forced to punt with six minutes remaining in regulation.

“That would have been the drive of the year if we scored on that one,” Tibbs said.

Liberty never gave the ball back, moving the ball from its 23 to Lee’s 10 on 13 plays that drained the clock.

“When we needed to move the ball, we did,” Watts said. “Our offense was clicking pretty well.”

The Minutemen racked up 411 yards on the ground, even on their wet turf that postponed the game from Friday night.

“It was hard to get traction on that field,“ said Liberty defensive tackle Brandon Sparrow, who rushed twice for 14 yards on a 50-yard drive capped by Bowyer’s 10-yard run after a fake to Sparrow up the middle. “We were slipping and sliding with all the mud.“

“They’re a very powerful offense,“ Tibbs said.

The top-seeded Minutemen (10-1), off to their best start since 2005, when they lost at Richlands in the state semifinals, will host second-seeded Northside, a 21-13 semifinal winner over Brookville, in Friday’s Region III championship.