It was another somber night for the Northampton football team last Friday when they fell on the road against Liberty 21-14. The K-Kids fell behind 14-0 in the first half and 21-7 in the third quarter and could never level with the Hurricanes (2-7) en route to suffering their fifth straight defeat of the season.

"It's just inexperience," said head coach Jeff Brosky. "We're just too inexperienced on the offensive line and that's shown in every game this year. We didn't make plays when we had to and that showed throughout the game."

Freshman quarterback Doug Erney threw two TD passes for Liberty, including a 24-yard strike to wide receiver KJ Williams in the third quarter to build Liberty's lead to 21-7.

Northampton answered late in the third when Nick Cook found Jared Bauer for a 16-yard score with 4:40 left to make it 21-14, but the Kids would never come close the rest of the half to threatening Liberty for the tie, as both teams struggled to sustain much offense in the second half, as Cook was under relentless pressure and Northampton's running game failed to sustain any footing.

"They [Liberty] were bringing two off the corner and we struggled to max protect that side," Brosky said. "We hoped that maybe Nick could get the ball off a little quicker, but that's easier said than done. Liberty did a good job defensively and we just couldn't protect."

Now the Kids are faced with the task of closing out their regular season at home Friday night against Whitehall (7-2), who are fresh off a 31-21 victory over Easton last week.

With the Kids facing another daunting challenge this week against one the Lehigh Valley Conference's best teams, Brosky just wants his troops to remain optimistic.

"We just need to get better," he said. "I've been telling them that each week and that's all we can really do at this point. We're an inexperienced team and it's very hard to establish continuity and consistency, so we just have to keep working hard."