Liberty complete sweep of Storm with 52-31 win

Courtesy of the Salina Post
Written by Tyler Henry

After a hard-fought first half, the Salina Liberty turned on the jets on Saturday, leaving Southwest Kansas in the dust in a 52-31 win over the Storm.

With this victory, the Liberty move to 6-2, having now won five of their last six league bouts, while the Storm fall to 2-6.

This win also secures Salina a spot in the top four of this year’s CIF playoffs, ensuring that the Liberty will at the very least host one postseason game at Tony’s Pizza Events Center.

After a strong performance in a non-league contest a week ago, the Liberty came into this one rested and ready, and wasted no time getting on the board as Ed Crouch found D-Wash on a fourth and seven to open the scoring.

Salina muted the Storm altogether until the second quarter, but Southwest Kansas battled back, as Josh Hollins walked in a touchdown from the goal line to even the score at 21-all going into the intermission.

From there, the Salina defense would tighten the screws, as the Liberty outscored their in-state foe 31-10 the rest of the way, cruising to their sixth win of the campaign by a 52-31 final.

Defensively, Salina did a much better job of corralling Josh Hollins, who ran wild on them in their first meeting, but mustered just three total touchdowns and a fumble in the rematch.

On offense, Ed Crouch continues to impress, completing 60% of his passes in this game for a trio of touchdowns including a pair to Anthony Love, and over 100 total yards on the day.

The Liberty will take a much-deserved bye week to rest up but will return to the gridiron for two final regular season games, hosting Sioux City on the 20th and traveling to Gillette on the 27th.