Liberty had an easy ride in last week’s 56-6 victory over Allen, but the Hurricanes won’t find that same path when they travel to Nazareth this Friday night.

The Blue Eagles pushed Freedom to the brink in last week’s 31-27 defeat and ’Canes head coach John Truby took notice of the much improved Nazareth program under second-year head coach Tom Falzone.

“Watching film on them [Nazareth], you can see they’re much better from a year ago,” Truby said. “Their scheme is better. They do a nice job offensively and have a good running game. They have explosive players on the outside and are getting good play from their quarterback.”

This week’s opponent will vary greatly from the ’Canes matchup with Allen from a week ago, where most of the starters were pulled midway through the third quarter of the rout.

Quarterback Doug Erney threw three TD passes on six completions for 96 yards and Liberty (2-0) got four rushing touchdowns from four different players (Gunner Anglovich, Nasir Legree, Johnathan Molina and Casey Meyers), as they racked up 316 yards on the ground.

Against Nazareth (1-1), Truby and company will look to slow down sophomore wide receiver Jahan Dotson, who has Division-I talent. Dotson caught six balls for 167 yards and a touchdown in last week’s loss to the Patriots. He took home an 80 yard TD reception late in the fourth quarter to give Nazareth the lead until Freedom scored the winning touchdown in the final two minutes.

Quarterback Travis completed 17 of 22 passes for 282 yards and two TDs last week and wideout Julian Liaci caught eight balls for 81 yards and a score.

Keeping Nazareth’s big play potential at bay is something that Truby is harping on this week.

“They might have one of the best wide receiver groups in the league,” Truby said. “If they get Dotson lined up 1v1 on the outside, he’s tough. We just have to make sure we keep him in front of us. We need to limit the damage he does.”

With the chance of going 3-0 on the table this week, Liberty knows this is a must-win game if they want to be considered a postseason team in the subregional race.

“If we want to get into districts, this is the type of game we need to win,” said Truby. “We’re doing a good job of focusing on the next opponent at hand and all of our focus is on Nazareth.”