Struthers takes Liberty to the limit
The Leopards had their hands full in an 18-6 victory over the Wildcats.
By TOM WILLIAMS
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
STRUTHERS -- Coming off a one-win season and facing a team that has lost once in the past 20 months, not many expected the Struthers High football team to hang tight with Liberty.
Factor into the mix that Wildcats quarterback Matt Kukura has had about two weeks of practice of taking snaps after switching from wide receiver to fill in for recovering starter Aaron Young.
Despite those obstacles, the Wildcats managed to give the Leopards plenty to handle Friday before falling, 18-6.
"Not too many expected us to be 12-6 in the fourth quarter," said Dallas Saunders said after his debut as Struthers coach. "We're trying to get our kids to believe that they can make things happen.
"We just kind of got a little beat up at the end there -- Liberty is a strong team and they wore us down," Saunders said. "I just wanted [my players] to give everything they had, and they did."
Scored clincher late
With about a minute to go, the defending Trumbull Athletic Conference champions who went unbeaten in last year's regular season, were nursing a 12-6 lead when tailback Edwards Fitzgerald broke free for a 45-yard run to the Struthers 1.
Two plays later, Fitzgerald bulldozed his way into the end zone for a 12-point advantage.
"Every guy that they have touching the football can break it at any given time and we did, at least up until the end, a fairly decent job of containing it," Saunders said.
Fitzgerald and running back Jonathan Wells carried the ball most of the night for the Leopards, with Fitzgerald gaining 169 yards on 20 carries and Wells running for 152 on 22 tries.
"He's a sophomore so it was his first varsity football game," Liberty coach Jeff Whittaker said of Fitzgerald. "He's got great speed and is a hard-nosed runner. It's a nice tandem."
Wells runs wild
Wells was unstoppable on the game's first series as he carried five times for 58 yards, scoring an 11-yard touchdown with 10:21 remaining in the first quarter. The extra-point kick attempt was blocked.
"To pop that first one into the end zone was a major lift for us," Whittaker said.
Wells agreed.
"It was real important that we strike first, start off with a blast," Wells said. "It made me tired, but it helped a lot."
The Leopards thought they had doubled the lead when Kenny Jackson returned a punt 65 yards. But offsetting penalties negated the runback.
Four plays later, Kukura intercepted a Jon Krause pass in the end zone to stop a Leopards' threat. On the next play, Kukura broke free for a 68-yard gain to the Liberty 12.
Sam Valiquette tied the score with a 10-yard run. The extra-point kick was short, leaving the score at 6-6.
Moments later, the Leopards were back on top as Fitzgerald escaped for a 36-yard gain to the 5, setting up Wells' 5-yard score with 0:35 to play in the first quarter.
For most of the next 36 minutes, neither team scored.
"We need to get better. We were killing ourselves," Wells said. "They started stopping it a little bit. I was real surprised -- I didn't know they had it in them."
Despite advancing to last year's Division III regional final, Whittaker said the Leopards have work ahead of them.
Leopards a young team
"We lost 17 lettermen from last year [so] we've got a young football team," Whittaker said. "Most of these kids have never played four quarters [of varsity]. Physically, I think we played very well.
"It's the mental part of the game that we need to improve upon. Every time we got close to the goal line, it seemed like we made some kind a mental error that affected us," Whittaker said. "We had our share of nice offensive plays -- we just didn't finish drives. I thought we did a great job of containing their offense."
Kukura led Struthers with 66 yards on 12 carries. Valiquette had 63 yards on 15 carries.
williams@vindy.com