Liberty-Eylau
LAST WEEK: The Leopards clinched a share of the District 7-4A, Division I title and the top seed in the playoffs with a 58-35 win over Quinlan Ford. THIS WEEK: Liberty-Eylau rides a 4-game win streak inthe playoffs, facing Brownsboro in a bi-district game Thursday. The game is set for 7 p.m. at Pine Tree’s Pirate Stadium in Longview.
OFFENSIVE STANDOUTS: QB Decorian Phillips connected on 19 of 28 passes for 344 yards and four TDs—three to Mahleik Darty in the first quarter. Darty had five catches for 96 yards, Isaiah Cross added eight grabs for 153 yards, and Phillips also rushed for a TD. Ralph Crabtree had 12 carries for 76 yards, a score and a 2-point conversion, and Kelston Joseph and Shannon Roy also ran for touchdowns. DEFENSIVE STANDOUTS: S Ken’Trell Chatmon had 13 tackles, DE Orion Williams and LB Marzavian Riles had 10 stops each, and DL Antony Alexander and Tremain Brown contributed eight tackles each. Gerald Webster had seven tackles, Thomas Rochell had six stops and caused a fumble, and Darty intercepted a pass on defense.
COACH STEVE WELLS’ COMMENTS: “Offensively, we started off about as well as we could have. We moved the ball, threw it around well and scored points. Mahleik made some big catches early for
touchdowns, Isaiah had a big game, and Dazawion (Cooper) and El-Amin (Greer) also had some big receptions. Decorian got the ball to all his receivers and had another good game; he threw for four touchdowns and one rushing, and our line did a good job of protecting him and giving him time.
“Defensively, they gave us a lot of different formations, a lot of unbalanced sets, and we didn’t check and slide when we needed to. They hit some big plays when they just had us out-manned. We came out the second half and adjusted well and shut them out, basically. They scored late, against mostly second and even third-team guys. We did a lot better job of tackling and lining up better; I was proud of the defense’s effort.”