Dodge Dominates Second Half

Liberal was competitive for one half Friday night in a 30-7 loss to the Dodge City Red Demon at Dodge City Memorial Stadium. The Redskins and Red Demons were scoreless after one quarter and it was 14-7 DCHS at halftime before the Demons thrilled their big homecoming crowd with a dominating second half.

The two teams both traded two turnovers a piece in the first quarters. LHS tossed an interception before Tanner Urban forced and recovered a fumble. LHS fumbled it away again before Michael Sena picked off a pass. The Red Demons built a 14-0 lead after a Taylor Doan one yard run (8:33) and a Damien Salem nine yard run which followed a 77 yard pass play from quarterback Taylor Murphy to Doan. But Liberal’s Britton Abbott ran 79 yards down the Redskin sideline into the south endzone to make it 14-7 with 4:24 to play in the half. Trenton Hammond picked off a pass to stymie Dodge City’s final drive of the first half.

Dodge carved Liberal 16-0 in the third quarter with a one yard run by Parker Davis made it 21-7 with 10:07 to play. A 28 yard DCHS field goal made it 24-7 with 4:11 remaining in the third quarter. A Murphy four yard run made it 30-7 with 1:33 to play in the third.

Britton Abbott rushed for 148 net yards and passed for 106 yards (9-26 3 INT"s). He accounted for all but 10 of Liberal’s 264 yards. The Red Demons amassed 488 yards with 246 rushing yards and 242 (11-27) through the air. Murphy was 9-19 for 209 yards and two touchdowns.

Davis’s 148 yard game makes three straight game a rusher has gone for over 100 yards against the Redskin defense.

This is Dodge City’s fifth win in the last six tries against Liberal and their third straight win over LHS. Liberal won 35-6 under Tom Schroeder in 2008 which was also their last WAC win. Liberal’s lost 12 straight WAC games.

The Redskins are 1-3 and 0-2 in the WAC while the Demons are 3-1 overall and 1-0 in the WAC.

Liberal hosts 2-2 Garden City Friday night for homecoming at 7 p.m. Dodge goes to 1-2 Great Bend.