Photo by: William D. Lewis

Photo

Liberty vs Niles football August 29, 2008.

Fitzgerald Toussaint

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Liberty Running Back

Photo by: William D. Lewis

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OPEN LANE: Fitzgerald Toussaint of Liberty heads for a first-quarter touchdown during Friday's game against Niles. Blocking is Liberty's Quincy Harris (54), and trying to catch Toussaint is Niles' Anthony Ingram (23).

By Pete Mollica

Toussaint’s 4 touchdowns send Liberty to a romp over Niles

NILES — Michigan-bound Fitzgerald Toussaint put on a show Friday night, rushing for 215 yards on just 10 carries and scoring four touchdowns as the Liberty Leopards rolled easily to a 48-9 victory against Niles McKinley at Bo Rein Stadium.

Toussaint, a 5-foot-8, 188-pound senior, had touchdown runs of 80, 99, 11 and 3 yards, and played just short of three quarters.

“He’s a great back — that’s why he’s going to Michigan,” Liberty High coach Jeff Whittaker said. “He did what he’s supposed to do out there tonight.”

But Toussaint wasn’t the only Leopard to show his stuff against the Dragons as sophomore Robert Smith-Harris reeled off a 78-yard scoring jaunt. And senior Isaiah Bell, also a Michigan recruit, hauled in a 22-yard scoring pass from Anthony Cleveland.

There was also a 58-yard run by Ryan Pennington that set up Toussaint’s final touchdown.

“Niles played us tough up front tonight, they have a good defensive line and until we broke a few they gave us some problems,” Whittaker said.

“I thought our defense played exceptionally well tonight,” Whittaker said. “We’ve been scoring a lot of points, but the defense has really been playing well and they even scored tonight. And when your defense scores that says well for their play.”

The defensive touchdown came in the third quarter when junior defensive back Nico Minniti scooped up a Niles fumble at midfield and raced 50 yards for a touchdown.

“Your defense can bend, but it can’t break and we broke tonight,” Niles’ first-year coach Brad Yeager said. “We played small ball with them pretty well, but we just couldn’t contain those big plays.”

“He’s [Toussaint] a great back and you can’t expect to shut him down completely, but he just ran wild tonight,” Yeager said.

“We’ve got a lot of young kids and our seniors are hanging in there,” Yeager said. “They’ve been giving me everything that I’ve asked of them and maybe more.”

Behind Toussaint, the Leopards (2-0) rushed for 354 yards on 26 carries. The Leopards defense held the Dragons to 137 yards on 44 carries, most of them coming after the game was well out of reach.

Niles (0-2) finally got into the end zone late in the final quarter with the reserves from both teams playing. Sophomore Reggie Wells scored on a 2-yard run with 3:17 remaining. Earlier, Niles’ talented placekicker, senior Nick Liste, boomed a 41-yard field goal as time ran out in the first half.

Toussaint wasted little time getting to the end zone. After Niles had pushed the Leopards back to their own 20, Toussaint took a handoff on a draw play up the middle found daylight and raced 80 yards.

The Leopards, who only threw five passes, completed two on the next drive after the Dragons gave up the football on their own 27 following a bad snap on a punt attempt.

Cleveland, a senior who was banged up in the first half and did not return, tossed a 22-yard scoring toss to Bell for the second score.

Liste punted the Leopards into a hole in the third quarter, dropping the ball at the 2-yard line. A motion penalty moved it back to the 1, but Toussaint just slashed off tackle, found a hole and raced 99 yards to the end zone. He added an 11-yard scoring run just before halftime.

In the third quarter, Pennington got the Leopards rolling with a 58-yard scamper to the Niles 10 and Toussaint finished the drive on a 3-yard run.

mollica@vindy.com