Liberty holds off Lord Botetourt in Region III, Division 3

BEDFORD — The chain reaction began with a seemingly innocuous fumble late in the game, with Liberty up two touchdowns and trying to grind out the clock.

Then Lord Botetourt scored a touchdown and recovered an iffy onside kick. Only when Vonte Harper intercepted Dalton Hargrove’s wobbly pass in the closing seconds could the Minutemen breathe easy, having escaped with a 21-14 victory in the opening round of the Region III, Division 3, playoffs Friday night.

The Minutemen (7-4) advance to next Friday’s region semifinals in Staunton against No. 2 seed Robert E. Lee (9-1).

The Minutemen played shorthanded Friday. Boo Payne spent the entire day at home, intermittently vomiting. Kordero Thompson, who injured his right knee on the first play of last week’s regular-season finale against Jefferson Forest, was out as well.

Still, Liberty made do.

The Minutemen’s run game was humming, and quarterback Tyler Bowyer put Liberty up 7-0 with an 8-yard touchdown run with 1:44 left in the first quarter. Eight seconds later, cornerback Thomas Clark read Hargrove’s eyes and jumped a route, intercepting a pass and returning it 27 yards for a score and a 14-0 lead.

Liberty’s offense wasn’t explosive by any means, but without the 6-foot-3 Thompson and the 6-6 Payne, the Minutemen did enough to get by. Clark ran for 102 yards on 14 carries and Lavarta Tanner added 83 yards on 17 carries and scored a touchdown.

“I wish we would have had Boo and Kordie. Their height, that’s what gives us an advantage in the pass game,” Bowyer said. “But we still had Malcolm (McCoy) and Anthony (Reynolds). They’ve got good speed. It’s an asset.”

The teams exchanged touchdowns in the second quarter, but Liberty’s stout defense kept the Cavaliers from mounting any serious second-half drives.

Until the fumble, at least.

Lord Botetourt didn’t score right after the turnover, but the two-touchdown spread allowed the Cavaliers to stay in the game. They finally scored with 21 seconds left as Hargrove hit Rodney Cooper for a 15-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 21-14.

The Cavaliers recovered the onside kick, though Liberty coach Chris Watts contends the play was illegal. Lord Botetourt kicker Troy McNeil kicked a soft dribbler to the middle of the field and jumped on it once it had gone 10 yards.

Only Lord Botetourt players began blocking Liberty’s players well before the ball traveled 10 yards, a violation of high-school rules, Watts said.

“We used to use that same onside kick and they banned it,” Watts said. “If you hit the defending team before the ball gets there, that’s a procedure penalty. We’ve been penalized for it before.”

But the play stood, and Botetourt had one last chance. The Cavaliers moved to the Liberty 41 and took two shots at the end zone. The first ball was underthrown, the second intercepted by Harper.

“Hat’s off to our kids,” Watts said. “They kept fighting and won the football game.”