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Hawklets defense smothers

Blue Jays in final three quarters

There was a whiff of an upset in the air.

Liberty High running back Garrett White just tore through the heart of Rockhurst’s defensive line and ran untouched 75 yards for a touchdown and the Blue Jays led by seven early in the second quarter.

Then, the Blue Jays’ offense vanished. Liberty gained only 94 yards over the balance of the final three quarters. Rockhurst found its footing offensively, scoring three times before halftime and adding another to start the third quarter to rumble past the Blue Jays 35-14 in a Class 6 sectional game Friday, Nov. 6, at Rockhurst High.

“Rockhurst is a great defensive team,” said Liberty coach Joel Wells. “They are a great football team. We had to play nearly perfect against them and we had some drives where one play killed us. It was one little thing. We just didn’t make those plays tonight. It wasn’t for lack of effort. I thought our team played extremely hard.”

All in all, the game started well for the Blue Jays. Rockhurst got out fast with a Noah Pearl 35-yard touchdown run on the first possession, but Liberty responded. The Blue Jays turned a fumble recovery into a 22-play scoring drive with White finishing it off with a 3-yard run.

Liberty stopped Rockhurst on a fourth-and-2 play from its 26 on the first play of the second quarter. White scored his long run on the very next play. White finished with 127 yards on 11 carries.

“We ran the ball really well early,” Wells said. “They are so fast to the perimeter, so we had to run between the tackles. We got the one popped all the way and then they made some good adjustments on us.”

Rockhurst started to rumble after that. Quarterback Frank Arbanas scored on a 12-yard run to tie it and then the Hawklets took the lead on a 9-yard run from Pearl.

Liberty had the ball on its 48 with 3:40 remaining before halftime, but went three-and-out.

Rockhurst delivered the crucial blow, driving 85 yards in the final 2:58. Arbanas found Cooper Beckett in the end zone for a 27-yard score on a fourth-and-13 play with three seconds to go.

Liberty was scrambling to call a timeout just before the play due to some miscommunication, but still had two players covering Beckett, who made a tough catch in traffic.

“It was big because we had the ball coming out in the second half,” Wells said. “If we have the ball and score, we get the thing tied.

“The big thing was that we shouldn’t have had to defend that. We should have gotten a few first downs and had a shot. I can’t say anything bad about the defensive effort because we shouldn’t have been playing defense.”

Sal Belfonte scored on a 12-yard run on Rockhurst’s first possession after halftime to give the Hawklets some more breathing room.

Sports writer Kevin Goodwin can be reached at 389-6652 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .