Liberty High School football team capitalizes on Parkland's mistakes in win

FROM THE EXPRESS TIMES

The knock on the Liberty High School football team is it can't throw the ball and it doesn't play defense.

The Hurricanes proved people wrong on Friday night.

Senior quarterback Jim McCarthy threw two touchdown passes and ran for two more scores and Liberty played just enough defense to come away with a 35-28 victory over Parkland in a Lehigh Valley Conference thriller.

"This was a huge game," Liberty senior safety Anthony Orlando said. "Any win in our conference is big, but if we lost again tonight it might have been the end of our season."

Orlando came up with two third-quarter interceptions and the Hurricanes capitalized on four Parkland turnovers. They turned a fumble and Orlando's two interceptions into touchdowns to avoid losing their third straight game -- and quite possibly the season.

"Defensively, we still gave up some big plays and we still gave up some yardage," Liberty coach Dave Brown said. "But that's OK. If you bend but don't break and you score off three turnovers, I'll take that every day of the week."

Liberty (3-2 overall, 2-2 LVC) was coming off back-to-back losses to Nazareth (42-41) and Whitehall (35-12).

"Our kids were very upset at the way things went last week," Brown said. "I think they took it very personal. We came out with some energy tonight and the defense played with some intensity."

Parkland (3-2, 2-2) led 21-14 after scoring 14 points in a span of 1:48 early in the third quarter. But McCarthy hooked up with senior running back Mike Harris for a 21-yard touchdown to tie the game one play after Orlando's first interception of Trojans quarterback Tim Baranek.

Orlando grabbed a pass tipped by defensive tackle Justin Morrison at the line of scrimmage.

McCarthy then put the Hurricanes ahead 28-21 with a nifty 22-yard run with 2:11 left in the third quarter.

On the ensuing Parkland possession, Orlando intercepted Baranek again on third-and-13 from the 20 and returned the pick inside the Trojans 5.

McCarthy wasted no time cashing in, going in from the 3-yard line to make it 35-21 with 1:01 left in the quarter.

"The first one was being at the right place at the right time," Orlando said. "The second was a play we worked on all week at practice. We knew what routes their receiver was going to run and (Baranek) threw the ball right into our coverage."

The Trojans got within a touchdown when Jarel Elder went 72 yards for a score with nine minutes left in the game. Elder finished with a game-high 141 yards on 11 carries.

The Hurricanes defense held Temple recruit Rob Dvoracek to 63 yards on 13 carries, though the Trojans senior ran for a pair of TDs.

"We worked real hard all week on defense and offensively," McCarthy said. "Our offensive line knew we needed to run the ball, and those guys blocked as well as you could have asked to open holes for our backs."

Liberty rushed for 304 yard and McCarthy finished 4 of 7 passing for 84 yards.

Harris led Liberty with 93 yards on 11 carries and Devon Jones added 91 yards on 11 attempts.

After a scoreless first quarter, Harris broke free for a 53-yard touchdown on the first play of the second quarter. Harris took a pitch from McCarthy, cut up field, broke a tackle just inside Parkland territory and outraced the pursuit for his fifth rushing score of the season.

With the score tied at 7, McCarthy hooked up with K.J. Williams on back-to-back pass plays with less than a minute left in the first half -- the latter a 21-yard fade in the left corner of the end zone to make it 14-7 Hurricanes at halftime.

"As a team, we know we can throw the ball," McCarthy said. "We just stick to the run. We stick to what works. We know we can throw the ball and you saw that tonight. We can throw the ball."

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/10/liberty_high_school_football_t_7.html