Fulton County Ohio Media

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For a moment.  A very brief moment.  It appeared that the 15^th seed Utica Redskins would provide some competition for the heavily favored Liberty Center Tigers in their first round OHSAA Division VI Football match-up at Rex Lingruen Stadium on Friday night.  The visiting Redskins took the opening kickoff, picked up two first downs then buried the Tigers down at their six-yard line on a punt when their drive stalled.

However, reality struck, and struck hard, in the form of a Thomas Mohler 94-yard touchdown run on Liberty’s first play from scrimmage and the Tigers would blitz the Redskins for 34 first quarter points on their way to a 58-6 lopsided victory.  The Liberty Center offense was so dominant they would only need three more plays to score their next two touchdowns.  A dropped pass on an attempted two-point conversion was their only mistake after a Waylon Rentz 18-yard score.  Utica had no answer for the unstoppable Tiger running attack.  Garrison Kruse had a 3-yard touchdown run and Rentz ran 33-yards into the end zone for the final first half offensive score.  Another major factor in LC scoring was the many failed fourth down attempts by the Redskins, several in their own territory, giving the high-powered Tiger offense short fields to work on.

Adding to the LC offense on the scoreboard were two pick-six scores, the first by Cam Kahl from 38 yards out for the 34-0 lead, and the second by Jackson Bartels who went the distance from 43 yards out and sent the Tigers into the locker room with a 51-0 halftime lead.

Due to Liberty Center’s lead of 30 or more points, the second half was played with a running clock.  In the third quarter, Max Perry hit Tyler Rohrs with a 4-yard scoring pass to complete the Tigers’ scoring with 58 points.  Utica finally got on the board when quarterback Hayden Piper ran the ball in from four yards out to cap an 11-play 79-yard touchdown drive.

Liberty Center had 410 yards of total offense with 361 yards coming on the ground.  Mohler had 150 yards on just six carries and Rentz added 114 on five attempts.  Ian Rosebrook was a perfect 8 for 8 on PATs and booted a 34-yard field goal for a total of 11 points.  Utica totaled 179 yards of total offense, led by Piper’s 157 yards through the air.

The playoff victory places the #2-seeded Tigers’ record on the year at 11-0.  They will next welcome in the #6-seeded Liberty Benton Eagles next Friday at 7:00 pm.  The Eagles defeated Fairview Park Fairview 37-0 to advance to the next round.

Click on the link above to access photos from the game. Photos are in the jpeg format to allow for editing and can be downloaded for NO CHARGE courtesy of the fultoncountymedia.com website.

Photo: Waylon Rentz breaks away from the Utica defense for a 33-yard touchdown