It was always going to be an uphill climb for Liberty last Friday night at Whitehall. With the hoopla surrounding former Zephyr and current New York Giants running back, Saquon Barkley, returning to see his high school jersey being retired at halftime, the excitement and hype surrounding the game was unmatched.

The other problem for the Hurricanes was Whitehall’s talent, as the Zephyrs would eventually pull away from the Hurricanes in a 30-6 victory.

It marked the second straight week that Liberty lost and the second straight week new head coach Shawn Daignault expressed frustration over mistakes that have proved to be the team’s Achilles’ heel in back-to-back setbacks.

“I don’t know if everything going on made a difference, but we made too many mistakes and you’re going to lose games to good football games doing that,” said Liberty head coach Shawn Daignault. “I don’t take a lot of solace in losing, but the kids at the end we’re talking about getting back to practice to work. Whitehall wasn’t so athletically better than us that we can’t play with them and this score could have been worse.”

Whitehall (3-0) amassed 406 yards of total offense and running back Nigel Linton made his best Saquon impression by racking up 114 yards and scoring three touchdowns to help push the Zephyrs 14-0 halftime lead into a 30-0 score late into the fourth quarter.

Daignault knew the emotion of the night was always going to be a factor for both teams, but acknowledged his disappointment in the lack of execution by his team.

“On both sides of the ball we gotta do a better job getting these guys prepared,” said Daignault. “Tempo offense rattled us with guys not being ready on the next play, as well as us not getting the calls in quick enough. When we fail we got to look at ourselves and we need to do a better job as a staff.”

Despite an actual football game going on throughout the evening, all the buzz was focused on Barkley, who arrived a few minutes before halftime following a three and a half hour trek through Manhattan traffic to see his No. 21 jersey retired on the Whitehall field house along former greats and Super Bowl champions Matt Millen and Dan Koppen.

Barkley was presented with his jersey at midfield during a halftime ceremony where he spoke briefly and thanked everyone in attendance for helping him along the way. He then trekked his way through a mob of people over to the Whitehall field house to take a picture in front of his newly retired No. 21 before meeting with the media inside Whitehall’s weight room where he talked about what being a Zephyr has always meant to him.

“This is probably the biggest honor of my career,” said Barkley of having his jersey retired. “This is forever. My kids and their kids can come see my number on the building. I never try and be a role model, but I hope the other people at Whitehall can see if you put the work ethic in, you can accomplish anything. There is no Saquon Barkley without this place. I’m forever grateful to all my coaches and teachers that helped me become who I am.”

Liberty (1-2) has to now find its own toughness in regrouping for this Friday’s home tilt against Stroudsburg 91-2).

“I feel we’re at where we should be at this point,” said Daignault. “Our kids play hard every snap and compete, but I wish we could come a little further mentally. We have guys that are really talented, but we got to push them a little further to make some plays.”