One thing the Liberty Blue Jays knew they could rely on going into their Friday night matchup against the undefeated Raytown Bluejays was their smashmouth rushing attack.

With Raytown closing in early in the second half, Liberty turned to their talented running game to pull away from the visiting Bluejays, winning 55-35 on Friday night in Liberty.

Box score, stats

“(Raytown) is a very talented offensive football team there’s no doubt about it,” Liberty head coach Chad Frigon said after the game. “I’m proud of how hard our kids played. It felt like one of those fights where it kept going back-and-forth, back-and-forth. Eventually we went back to our run game, which we know we can do when we have to.”

In a game that featured two undefeated teams, it was Liberty who came out of the gates fast in front of their home crowd. After a five-yard penalty, senior running back Robert Rawie took his first carry of the game 75 yards to the house to put the Liberty Jays up 7-0 just 17 seconds into the game.

After stopping Raytown on their first drive of the game Liberty again wasted little time getting on the board again, this time through the air. Senior quarterback, Thomas Henrichs, connected with senior wide receiver Josh Corf on a 35-yard touchdown throw to put Liberty up, 13-0.

Just when it looked like Liberty might put the game away early, the other Jays responded. Raytown and one of the area’s best quarterbacks Joe Campbell came to life. Campbell came into the game with the second most passing yards through the first three games of the season; his favorite target Dominic Gicinto led the KC area with 540 receiving yards coming into the game.

Raytown’s air attack caught their stride midway through the first quarter when they came up with a big play of their own, a 45 yard touchdown pass from Campbell to Desmond Hutson to make the score, 13-8. Huston led the Jays in receiving with 151 yards and three scores.

The teams would exchange touchdowns and big plays the rest of the half. Liberty scored on touchdowns of 49 and 56 for Liberty and 23 and 21 for Raytown. With all the offense both defenses had little time to rest, causing problems for both teams. However, Liberty would still take a 28-22 lead into the half.

“One thing I noticed early our defense wasn’t getting a break, it was kind of hurting in that sense but you never want to complain about points,” Frigon said. “We felt like our defense was on the field a lot during that first half so that really put us in a bind.”

Both teams continued to trade points in the second half before the Liberty rushing attack eventually wore down the Raytown defense. Rawie carried the ball over 20 times in the second half en route to 286 rushing yards and four touchdowns. Backfield mate Jack Lowery added 141 yards on seven totes.  

Meanwhile, penalties and a relentless Liberty pass rush slowed down Campbell and the Raytown offense as the second half went on. Campbell still finished with 411 passing yards and five scores, with 124 and a touchdown to Gicinto.

“I think we got to their quarterback a little more in the second half,” Frigon said. “And not just with the sacks, but by putting him in some tough situations and rushing him a little more than the first half.”

Liberty sealed the game when Rawie punched in a seven-yard  touchdown with 1:34 left to make the score 55-35.

By air, quarterback Thomas Henrichs threw for 200 yards and three touchdowns - two to Nathan Gray, who hauled in five catches for 143 yards.

Liberty (4-0) will now look forward to next week when they host Olathe East at home. Raytown (3-1) will head to Park Hill South to take on the Panthers.

Box score, stats