Liberty Moves to 8-1 with a 30-14 Win at New Mexico State
Liberty is 8-1, and the way it got there on Saturday was three field goals from Chase Reeves, a short touchdown pass, and a defense that took the ball away three times.
New Mexico State scored first. Trey Hedden threw a 24-yard touchdown to AJ Williams with 11:29 left in the first quarter, and for a while that was the game. Then Reeves started kicking: 35 yards late in the first, 41 midway through the second, 49 with 4:11 left in the half. The 49-yarder put Liberty up 9-7 and was the only lead change of the day. Deshawn Purdie then hit Makai Jackson for 15 yards with 18 seconds left before the break, and it was 16-7 at halftime.
Nobody scored in the third quarter. New Mexico State got back to 16-14 on a 5-yard Hedden pass to Williams with 13:00 left, which was as close as it came. Kam Davis ran in from 8 yards at 10:12 for 23-14, and Peyton Jones added a 1-yard run with 1:03 left for the final 30-14. Liberty scored the last 14 points of the game.
The turnovers are the plain explanation. Hedden threw two interceptions and New Mexico State lost a fumble, while Liberty gave the ball away zero times. Liberty out-gained its hosts 400 yards to 300, and New Mexico State ran 22 times for 44 yards, a pace that makes the offense hard to run.
Liberty heads on at 8-1. New Mexico State drops to 3-6. Fantasy-wise, it was a good day to own AJ Williams, who scored both of his team's touchdowns.