Fulton County Ohio Media

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Liberty Center place kicker Carly Roth booted a 27-yard field goal as time expired, lifting the Tigers to a 38-35 upset victory over the previously unbeaten and #1-State Ranked Archbold Blue Streaks in a Regional Semi-Final Division VI football game at Defiance High School Saturday night.  Roth’s clutch kick, which split the uprights, was the perfect ending to her perfect kicking performance on the night, adding on to her five successful point-after-attempts on five tries.

The Liberty Center win, not only advances the Tigers into the Regional Final game but also avenges an early-season 41-7 drubbing at the hands of their fellow NWOAL foe.  Talk among local pundits and others leading up to the contest generally agreed that this Tiger squad was playing at a much higher level than the one that lost to the Streaks in September.  They had not lost a game since, running up seven straight wins, including two in the playoffs.

The first quarter of the game proved all the talk was not just rhetoric as Liberty Center took an early 14-0 lead on touchdown runs by Matthew Orr and Zane Zeiter.  Archbold was finally able to get on the board before the quarter ended on a DJ Newman 47-yard touchdown pass to Gavin Bailey, cutting the deficit in half.

From that point the two teams began trading touchdowns.  Every time the Tigers regained their 14-point lead, the Blue Streaks would find the end zone again to pull within seven.  Evan Conrad pulled in a seven-yard pass from Zeiter to put LC up 21-7 and Archbold responded with a six-yard TD run by Carson Dominique, making the score 21-14 at halftime.  Zeiter scored on a one-yard quarterback sneak and Karter Behnfeldt answered with a 44-yard catch and run score to restore the seven-point gap at 28-21 with almost 10 minutes to go in the game.

Archbold attempted an onside kick but Liberty Center recovered and later scored from 32 yards out on a run by Teejay Moore.  Down 35-21 with approximately six minutes remaining, the Streaks quickly drove down the field where Newman hit Bailey with a 14-yard strike to get the deficit back to seven points.

Again, Archbold attempted an onside kick but this time they recovered when Behnfeldt grabbed the ball at the top of a high bounce.  It took just one play, another Newman to Bailey connection, this one a 52-yard bomb, to tie the game at 35-35 after Krayton Kern’s extra point.

It appeared the momentum had swung in favor of the Blue Streaks but there was still over four minutes left on the clock.  The Tigers took the kickoff and drove to the Archbold 20-yard line, called a timeout with just 3.6 seconds left and brought on the field goal unit.  The Archbold coaches called a timeout attempting to freeze the Liberty Center kicker to no avail. 

The kick was long and true and propelled the Tigers to the fourth round of the playoffs and the name Carly Roth into legendary status of Liberty Center High School Tiger football lore.

The Blue Streaks finished the season with a 12-1 record while Liberty Center improves to 11-2 and will face the Carey High School Blue Devils next Saturday, November 20, 2021 at 7:00 PM at Bowling Green High School.

Click on the Google Photos link above to access all photos from the game. Photos are in the jpeg format to allow for editing and can be downloaded to your computer for no charge courtesy of the fultoncountymedia.com website.