It was as good of a bounce back performance you can ask for after a season opening loss.

Liberty achieved that on a short week, knocking off Central Catholic 38-14 last Thursday night at BASD Stadium.

The Hurricanes (1-1) looked much better from their season opener against Pennridge, building off a 17-14 halftime lead to throttle the Vikings in the third quarter with three touchdowns for the runaway victory.

Antonio Fontanez threw for 172 yards and two scores and ran for 75 yards and another touchdown, as Liberty’s skill players were on display.

After struggling to run the ball in week one with only 11 yards on the ground, Liberty amassed 233 yards against the Vikings with Adriaan Deleon leading the way with 133 yards and a score. Gabe Green added 48 yards and a touchdown on a night where Liberty head coach Shawn Daignault felt his young offensive line grew up.

“It felt good to see our offensive line establish the run game,” said Daignault. “Adriaan and Gabe both ran really hard and really well, but I’m most proud of our offensive line. We have three sophomores starting and they grew up quite a bit from last week and made way fewer mistakes and were more physical.”

Anthony Martin, Jason Doughty and Finnegan Munro are the three sophomores that will need to keep improving each week for Liberty to reach their full potential. Senior left tackle, a Dartmouth recruit leads the group, along with junior Nazir Barahona.

For as dominating the final score looks, the Hurricanes were behind 14-7 to start the second quarter. A 26-yard field goal by Christian Hackett and a four-yard rushing score by Deleon gave the ‘Canes the halftime lead before putting it away in the second half.

Fontanez led the scoring brigade with touchdown throws to Jake Pukszyn (11-yard score) and Jaxon Barlok (53-yard score) before racing 73-yards on his own TD run with under a minute left in the period to wipe out any Central confidence.

“This is a huge win for us,” said Daignault. “Not only to get the win, but the way we did it. We showed a lot of discipline, didn’t have many penalties and didn’t make mistakes. Our eyes were in the right place on defense and I’m really proud of that.”

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Freedom dropped their second straight game to open the season following last week’s 18-7 defeat at Parkland. The Trojans led 12-7 at halftime, but used a blocked punt by Naquan Thomason midway through the third quarter to give them enough cushion. Thomason picked up the blocked punt and returned it 15 yards for the decisive touchdown.

Freedom running back Lashawn Johnson had the lone score on the night for the Pates, rumbling for a 50-yard touchdown in the second quarter. He finished with 117 yards on a night Freedom outgained Parkland 219-201.

The Pates look to get on track this Saturday night when they travel to J. Birney Crum Stadium to play Central Catholic.

Liberty hits the road for the first time this season, trekking up to Stroudsburg on Friday to take on the Mounties.