Liberty’s young football team finally broke through Friday night.

Treyce Whitlow rushed for 144 yards and two touchdowns, while Greg Tillman caught two touchdown passes as the Hurricanes earned their first win of the season with a 28-14 victory over Stroudsburg at BASD Stadium.

After losses to Pennridge and Central Bucks East, Liberty (1-2) overcame an early 7-0 deficit and scored in each quarter against the previously unbeaten Mounties (2-1).

Coach Shawn Daignault said the victory was a reward for a young and inexperienced group that continued to work through adversity.

“These kids have shown a ton of resilience the last few weeks behind the scenes,” Daignault said. “It’s really easy with an inexperienced group, when we face some adversity those first few weeks, to fracture. You’ve got to give these kids a lot of credit that did not happen. Even after that first quarter tonight, nobody flinched on the sideline. We just got back to work.”

Whitlow scored on touchdown runs of 33 and 35 yards, while Tillman made two impressive scoring catches from quarterback Alsaiah Gross, covering 35 and 27 yards.

Daignault said Liberty had been waiting for Whitlow’s opportunity to make an impact.

“We knew about Treyce. He’s the real thing,” Daignault said. “He got his opportunity with Mekkhi going down and playing a lot of offense today, and I wasn’t surprised by what I saw him do. We’ve known for a couple of years now he was going to be able to play.”

Liberty’s defense settled in after Stroudsburg scored on its opening drive. The Mounties went through seven consecutive possessions without scoring before cutting Liberty’s lead to 21-14 on a 13-yard touchdown pass from Jack Mitchell to Victor Cassese with 9:07 remaining.

On the ensuing Liberty possession, Gross directed a seven-play, 80-yard drive, ending with Tillman leaping over a defender to secure his second touchdown reception and restore the two-touchdown lead.

Tillman’s second quarter touchdown from 35 yards out just before halftime gave Liberty a 14-7 lead and a shot of confidence going into the second half.

“That moment was a big moment,” Daignault said. “It was a 7-7 nip-and-tuck battle. The next score, you knew, was going to build some momentum. It was particularly good for us because we were getting the ball to start the second half and came out and scored again. That back-to-back score at the end of the second and beginning of the third was gigantic.”

Gross finished with 170 passing yards and two touchdowns.

Liberty now looks to get back to .500 this week when they host Northampton on Friday night.

“Northampton is a damn good team. I have already seen film and they are good. They are going to be a real big challenge,” Daignault said. “The message isn’t going to change this week. We need to continue to grow, and we need to win the battle against ourselves again this week.”