Most times if a football team rushes for over 300 yards and wins the turnover battle 3 to zero, they can feel pretty confident of coming away with a win in that game. Unfortunately for the Konkrete Kids, those gaudy stats were not enough to secure victory as Liberty scored on the final possession of the game to steal a 41-34 win at Al Erdosy Stadium last Friday night.

In the first half alone, Northampton ran 41 plays to the Hurricanes’ 11. Liberty lost a fumble on the first play from scrimmage of the game. They later threw an interception on a deflected pass.

Halftime score: 21-all.

How did it happen? Liberty’s offense was explosive. They outgained the K-Kids in the first half 206 to 204. Their three touchdown drives took 3 plays, 2 plays, and 3 plays.

Northampton missed out on a scoring opportunity on their second drive of the game. They appeared to have first and goal at the 2 after a long Chase Kessler run, but the play was called back due to holding and the Kids came away empty.

The K-Kids owned the third quarter. Keegan Hackett secured his second interception of the game, dropping deep over the middle and making a leaping grab. His return set Northampton up at the Liberty 36 and Kessler cashed it in with a 12-yard run to put the Kids back on top.

The defense forced a three-and-out and the offense responded by driving 72 yards highlighted by a 34-yard Kessler jaunt for his third touchdown of the game. Northampton led 34-21 with 11:45 remaining in the game.

Liberty took advantage of a short field due to a facemask on the ensuing kickoff return and narrowed the margin to 34-28.

After a Kids’ three-and-out, the Hurricanes went 70 yards in 5 plays but missed what would have been the go-ahead extra point. 34-all. 6:03 remaining.

A big 19-yard third down conversion from Gavin Taff to Hackett set Northampton up at the Liberty 34 with a fresh set of downs. From there, the drive stalled forcing a decision on fourth and 7 from the 31. A deep pass was wide of the mark and the Hurricanes took over 69 yards from the winning touchdown.

They methodically marched down the field and left the Kids time for only desperation, lateral-filled kickoff return to try to equalize.

“We made it easy. We’ve got to fix the secondary. I mean, that’s all there is to it. Yeah, they’re (Liberty) good, but they’re not that good. We made them look really good. There were blown assignments, just not being in the area code to defend the pass,” lamented head coach John Toman. “We can score points on people, that’s for sure. We’re 2-2. We’ve just got to keep working to get better.”

Liberty 14-7-0-20 41

N’ampton 6-15-7-6 34

Northampton rushing: Kessler 30-173 yards 3TD, Zander Rickert 22-121 2TD, Taff 6-11, Dom Barkanic 1-4

Passing: Taff 4-10-0 38 yards

Receiving: Hackett 1-19 yards, Cameron Hersch 1-8, Dylan Stuhldreher 1-8, Barkanic 1-3