Mountain View–Birch Tree Liberty High School notched its second victory in as many games Friday night by knocking off Springfield Catholic 32-16 at Swisshelm Field. After a scoreless first quarter, the offenses really stepped it up in the second stanza as four of the five touchdowns scored in the quarter came in the last four minutes.
 
Catholic struck first on a 19-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Eric Smith to tight end Nick Nusbaumer. Brett Garner kicked the extra point. When the clock got under four minutes, the scoring frenzy began in earnest.
 
Eagles junior quarterback Jaelon Acklin connected with tight end Austin Smotherman for a 20-yard touchdown strike. The kick failed and the Irish held a 7-6 lead.
 
A costly Irish fumble deep in their own territory led to another Eagles touchdown just 20 seconds later on Acklin’s 7-yard run. A two point conversion run by James Denton made it 14-7, Liberty.
 
The Irish retaliated quickly however as junior running back Cameron Skornia scored on a 66-yard run just 14 seconds after the Eagles had taken the lead. Garner split the uprights again to tie the game at 14-14. Liberty would score again with 1:19 remaining as Acklin connected with Trenton Bush on a 13-yard pass to take a 20-14 halftime lead.
 
The Irish would not find the end zone again although they did cut the lead to 10 at 26-16 when they tallied a safety midway through the fourth quarter. Acklin, who ran for 3 touchdowns and passed for the other two Liberty scores, put the final 6 points on the board with his 3-yard run with 5:28 left in the game.
 
“Mountain View is a really good football team,” said Irish coach Bobby Cornelison. “We had those two turnovers late in the first half and gave them two extra possessions. They beat us by two touchdowns so that was basically the difference in the ballgame right there.”
 
Cornelison added: “When you play a team as good as they are, you cannot give them extra opportunities. Overall, we played well most of the night, but we had some mental mistakes that were very costly right before halftime.”
 
Acklin ran the ball 13 times for 132 yards and 3 TDs. He completed 6 of 8 passes for 102 yards and two touchdowns.
 
For the Irish, Skornia carried 23 times for 173 yards and a touchdown. Eric Smith was 6-14 passing for 105 yards and a touchdown.
 
The Irish, now 1-1 on the young season, head to Rogersville next Friday to tangle with the COC Small Division rival and defending Class 3 state champion Wildcats.

Liberty 32, Catholic 16

MV-BT Liberty        0        20        12        0            32
Catholic        0        14        0        2        16

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