John Truby was pleased that his team was able to score 75 points last week in their win over Central Catholic, but he also was discouraged about surrendering 54 points as well.

Those are the circumstances Liberty (7-2) took away from their video game style performance last Saturday, where both teams combined for 1, 206 yards.

Gunner Anglovich had a worldly afternoon, rushing 33 times for 391 yards and seven touchdowns to pace the Liberty offense. Quarterback Doug Erney only threw five times last week, tossing a TD in the process, but also rushing for two more and 152 yards as the Liberty ground game exploded.

“The defenses were just not there,” said Truby of the game. “I thought the defense played pretty well in the first half, but in the second half we just didn’t make plays and kids weren’t making tackles. Fortunately, our offense was able to score so much, but we’re not going to be scoring 75 every week. The concern is you don’t want to be giving up 54 points to any defense this close to districts.”

That’s where Truby and company hope they can mend the wounds from a historic offensive performance this week when they take on Freedom (8-1) Saturday afternoon.

The Patriots owned Liberty in last year’s 29-0 result, and this year’s contest will be as big as ever, as they try to solidify district seeding and first round home games next weekend.

After the Patriots took down Easton in overtime last week 19-13, Truby understands that his team is going to get a great test on Saturday afternoon from another running back in Freedom’s Andres Santos.

After giving up 185 yards and four scores to Central’s Alvin Pacheco last week and 300 yards and two touchdowns to Easton’s Nysir Minney-Gratz the previous week, Liberty’s run defense has been sliced up as of late.

While Santos doesn’t encompass the small, shifty back that has torched the ’Canes as of late, he brings another problem to the table with his running style.

“Santos is one heck of a running back,” said Truby. “When he gets downhill, he’s falling for three or four yards. Joe [Young] is showing the propensity to run the ball and their offense is showing they can operate at a high level. We have to make sure we play assignment football.”

As far as the rivalry of this contest, not much really needs to be said.

“This is Liberty-Freedom,” Truby said. “It doesn’t get much bigger than this. It’s great that we’re both coming into this game with more at stake and that should just make this a better game, but we have to focus on the things we need to do in order to win.”