By ERIC FORTUNE

sports@vindy.com

LIBERTY

On Friday night, the Liberty High football team relied on Lynn Bowden’s offense to jump out to a three-touchdown lead at halftime.

The Leopards needed his defense to hold on in the closing minutes.

Bowden ran for 91 yards and a touchdown and threw for 70 yards and another score to help Liberty edge visiting Crestview 26-18.

The Leopards jumped out to a 19-0 lead — holding Crestview to 12 yards of total offense during that stretch — before things got dicey.

The Rebels — who beat Liberty twice last season, including the first round of the Division V playoffs — cut the deficit to 19-7 with 7:35 left in the third quarter on a 3-yard TD run by Zach Hicks. The touchdown capped a 10-play, 52-yard drive.

“We were a little out of our game in the first half,” Crestview coach Paul Cusick said. “We couldn’t catch up to their speed. We just didn’t do anything well offensively. I thought our defense though played their hearts out in the first half. On the offensive side, we just didn’t help our defense out at all.”

“We made a couple of adjustments at halftime. We put some tight ends in and those guys did a great job. Our offense was able to respond. I thought the defense overall did a good job.”

Crestview’s Dean Foster made a 36-yard field goal with 3:14 left in the third quarter to cut the deficit to 19-10, but Liberty responded with a 70-yard drive on its ensuing possession. Brandon Rios scored from five yards out — his second touchdown of the night — to give the Leopards a 26-10 lead with 51 seconds left in the third.

“They caught us off balance a little bit,” Cylar said. “We were still able to get some yards though here and there. We were able to march down the field and respond. We just wanted to survive.”

Crestview’s Jesse Best got the Rebels back within one score with 8:59 left on a 4-yard TD run.

“In the first half, we were out of sync,” Cusick said. “I think maybe we out-coached ourselves in the first half. I’m going to take some blame for that. Second half, the kids responded to our adjustments. We grew up a little bit.”

After forcing a Liberty punt, the Rebels marched from their own 27 to the Leopards’ 22 to set up a fourth-and-11. But Bowden intercepted Best’s pass with less than two minutes left to seal the win.

“He’s used to switching in and out,” Cylar said of Bowden. “He had a very bad high ankle sprain. Hats off to him for coming in and doing what we needed him to do.”

Rios ran nine times for 30 yards and JaShaun Whitman caught two passes for 62 yards for the Leopards (2-1), who held the Rebels without a first down until a minute left in the first half. Liberty’s biggest problem was penalties; the Leopards were flagged 18 times for 128 yards.

Hicks ran 23 times for 81 yards and Best passed for 91 yards for the Rebels, who also lost a fumble and were penalized nine times for 64 yards.

“They put up 26 points, but we gave them a short field a lot of times along with some big plays,” Cusick said. “We have to get those things fixed.”