Liberty Edges Gardner-Webb 24-23 on a 54-yard Touchdown
Jaylen Henderson completed two of his four passes, and one of them won the game. His 54-yard touchdown to Darius Copeland with 2:34 left, plus Chase Reeves' extra point, gave Liberty a 24-23 win over Gardner-Webb.
Liberty had trailed 23-17 since Tyler Simpson's third field goal in the third quarter, so the comeback was the first time the Flames were in front since the first half. They started well enough. Deshawn Purdie hit Makai Jackson for 65 yards on the game's second score, Jaylon Coleman ran in from 20, and it was 14-3 in the first quarter. Then Gardner-Webb went on a run of its own: Sabin McLaughlin returned a fumble 35 yards for a touchdown, Randy Young ran 65 yards for another, and it was 20-14 Gardner-Webb in the second quarter. Reeves cut it to 20-17 with a 30-yard field goal at 0:00 of the half.
Liberty did not need much air. It had was 44 carries for 210 yards, 2 sacks and no interceptions. It also lost two fumbles, and one of them seems to have gone back for a touchdown, which is exactly how you hand a team that scored 23 points a real chance.
Liberty moves to 1-1 and Gardner-Webb is 0-1. For fantasy, this was a thin game: the top scorer, Jackson, had 14.9 points on two catches, and Copeland's one catch was worth 12.4. Purdie went 6 of 17 and still threw a touchdown. Do not ask me to explain it. Copeland's catch was his first reception of the season.