Clear Fork – Liberty quarterback Jaxson Workman is a believer in momentum.
It clearly favored his Raiders.
The sophomore quarterback’s 6-yard touchdown run in overtime proved to be the winning score Friday as Liberty pulled off an unlikely comeback to spoil Westside’s homecoming with 30-22 victory in Clear Fork.
The scoring run was a key play in a pivotal stretch full of them, all of which ultimately favored the Raiders.
Having netted just one yard in the second half entering their final drive of regulation, Workman and the Raiders engineered a 15-play, 80-yard charge that saw him complete a pair of fourth down passes to keep hope alive.
The first found the mitts of Colton Tolliver for a gain of nine yards on fourth-and-8 while the second resulted in the tying score as Workman, who was being pulled to the ground by his waist, threw up a fourth-and-11 pass to Parker Hodges who caught it and dove to the goal line for a 15-yard score and 22-22 tie with 32 seconds to play in regulation.
“I saw pressure and I knew I had to throw it,” Workman said. “It was fourth down, the last play of the game so I scanned the field, saw (Tolliver) wide open in the end zone and just threw it. Let him get a chance and he scored. I kind of looked him off to the left side and went back to it and the corner had done shifted to the other side.”
Workman’s heroics were nearly moot. Adding doubt to the equation, Westside, which saw starting quarterback Bradyn Waldron take a hit to the knee that ended his night on the drive before Workman’s touchdown pass, returned a kick to the Liberty 39, setting up an opportunity for a winning score in regulation.
Devon Sanders, filling in for Waldron, more than doubled Westside’s offensive output in the second half with a 37-yard pass to Braxton Waldron on the first play of the drive, setting the Renegades up just outside the end zone. Westside, ultimately had two shots to punch the ball in with under 20 seconds to play but failed to do so, seeing the clock expire following a Sanders sneak attempt from the Liberty 1.
“We jumped into a gap A,” Liberty head coach Mark Workman said. “It was a six-man front and we walked the backers up into the C gaps and told them, ‘Guys, we’ve got to go get it. It’s first-and-goal from the 2 and the ball game’s on the line, go get it. And that’s what they did. They bucked up, manned up and we got a stop.”
“We were having to switch to Devon who’s our backup quarterback,” Westside head coach Will Daniels said. “With the crunch on time and where he doesn’t;t take a lot of reps at quarterback it was bad timing. and kind of messed with the fluidity of hat we were trying to achieve right there. All credit goes to Liberty, they seemed to want it more.”
The overtime period was a snowballing extension of Liberty’s success on both sides.
Following Workman’s go ahead touchdown Westside had third-and-1 at the Liberty 11 but Sanders was hit by defensive lineman Logan Ellis for a loss of two yards and had his final pass attempt drop incomplete in the back of the end zone to seal the win.
It capped what was largely a half of struggles for the Renegade offense.
After rushing for 184 yards on 28 carries, with 138 coming via Sanders, the Renegades were limited to just 25 yards rushing on 14 attempts in the second half and 72 yards total in the second half, 37 of which came on one play.
Sanders in particular was held to 12 yards and 12 attempts in the second half and overtime.
“In the first half we were playing some cover 3 and weren’t putting as many in the box,” Coach Workman said. “I told them at halftime we were going to make them throw to beat us so we put eight in the box and ran cover 0 on them. It worked out. They scored 22 in the first half and didn’t score none in the second half.”
Westside’s run game produced all of its points with Bradyn Waldron drawing first blood on a 1-yard run. Workman answered back with a 4-yard rush to open the second quarter but scoring runs from Jace Repass and Sanders put the hosts ahead 22-16 at the break. Neither team carried a rhythm into the early part of the second half with five consecutive punts preceding Liberty’s tying drive.
For the visitors it was their second overtime game of the year after falling against PikeView. That loss served as an applicable learning experience for the Raiders.
“I made some bad calls in that game,” Coach Workman said. “We gave up a lot of yardage and got settled into a defense. At that point we were trying some different things and it’s one of those games where you’ve got some new coaches and you’ve got new players at new positions and trying everybody out here.”
Workman finished with 92 yards rushing on 24 carries, tossing a touchdown in the win.
Sanders finished with 141 yards rushing and a touchdown in the loss while Cameron Perry intercepted two passes for the Renegade defense.
Liberty (2-4) will host Class AAA Shady Spring next week while Westside (3-2) will travel to No. 1 Independence
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