Less than two hours from kickoff between Liberty and Old Dominion Saturday night in Norfolk, Virginia the skies opened up and there were some heavy rains. It led to water ponding at places on the field at S.B. Ballard Stadium. While the heavy rain would stop by kickoff and allowed the game to be played without any weather delays, the Monarchs were able to extinguish the Flames to pick up the 21-7 win.
Liberty (1-4, 0-1 CUSA) had some opportunities, aided by the defense forcing four Old Dominion (3-1, 0-0 Sun Belt) turnovers, three of them coming inside the 10-yard line, but the offense was unable to string together successful plays to take advantage. The Flames drop their fourth straight game, falling to 1-4 for the first time since 2012.
“It’s the same story, different record, so to speak,” said Liberty head coach Jamey Chadwell. “As bad as we’re playing, we’re not playing good, as bad as we’re playing, we have had some opportunities to beat some good teams in the 4th quarter and we’re just not good enough to overcome beating ourselves.”
The Monarchs dominated the stat sheet, holding Liberty to 210 yards of offense, just 77 through the air. Meanwhile, ODU nearly racked up 500 yards of offense, finishing the game with 489. Entering the game as the nation’s top red zone offense by scoring touchdowns on all 10 of the team’s trips inside the red zone in the first three games, Old Dominion was 0 for 5 on red zone trips Saturday. Coupled with the four turnovers, it allowed Liberty to hang around, even having possession across midfield at the start of the fourth quarter with a chance to tie the game.
Facing a 4th and 2 at the ODU 45, Liberty quarterback Ethan Houck took the snap and pushed forward towards the first down line to gain. It initially looked like he had the necessary yardage, but, after a measurement, he was spotted short, resulting in a turnover on downs. Two plays later, Old Dominion struck for a touchdown for the final score of 21-7, and Liberty never threatened again.
With starting quarterback Ethan Vasko missing the game in a return to his hometown due to a shoulder injury suffered last week against James Madison, redshirt-freshman Michael Merdinger made his first career start. He completed 6 of 11 passes for 77 yards. 53 of his passing yards came on one play to Donte Lee which set up Liberty’s lone scoring drive which came in the third quarter. Juju Gray rushed the ball over the end zone from four yards out, cutting the Flames’ deficit to 14-7. It was Liberty’s only trip into the red zone of the night. Houck played sparingly, being rotated in during certain situations. He attempted just one pass, which resulted in an interception. He also had 3 rushes for 11 yards.
Evan Dickens carried the ball 10 times for 33 yards before exiting the game early in the second quarter with “concussion symptoms.” Caden Williams had 18 rushes for 85 yards.
There was a stretch in the middle part of the game where the Liberty offense failed to move the ball and the ODU defense dominated. Over the course of six straight offensive drives from early in the second quarter into the third period, Liberty had 19 offensive plays for -9 yards.
“We’ve got to be better at every position on offense,” Chadwell said. “Not one group is playing really, really well right now. We’ve got to do a better job overall. We had less than 80 yards, passing, you can’t do that if you’re going to win in college football.”
Joe Carter led the team with 13 tackles while Derrell Farrar had 11. Liberty had four tackles for loss on the evening. The Liberty defense forced an ODU fumble after the Monarchs reached inside the Liberty 10-yard line on the opening possession of the game. Two series later, the Monarchs recovered a Liberty fumble at the 2, but the Flames once again held, recovering a fumble at the 1.
Old Dominion’s offense came to life behind quarterback Colton Joseph for consecutive touchdown drives in the second quarter to take the 14-0 lead. Looking to score on a third straight possession and take a commanding 21-0 lead in the closing moments of the first half, Joseph reached for the end zone on the quarterback keeper but Liberty was able to knock the ball out of his hands and recover the fumble.
“It could have been easily 21-0 at halftime and they get the ball (to start the 2nd half),” said Chadwell. “It could have gotten out of hand. For (the defense), to get the turnovers, it kept us in the game, gave us an opportunity to come out of halftime, regroup. I thought the turnovers were big. I thought the defense played well, for the most part, all game. I think there was one drive they went like 80 something yards in four plays, that was one drive where we didn’t execute very well. Besides that, I think we made them earn everything, that’s all you can ask. We are putting (the defense) in some bad situations on the offensive side of the ball. Their job is to get the ball back and stop them. I thought they did that tonight. They didn’t complain. They went after it. I thought they gave us a chance to win.”
Liberty’s fourth takeaway of the night came early in the third quarter when A’Khori Jones intercepted a Joseph pass and returned it to the Liberty 36. This is when Merdinger connected with Lee for 53 yards, highlight a four-play, 64-yard drive that cut the deficit to 14-7.
Falling to 1-4 on the season, Liberty has an open date this coming week before shifting to a midweek schedule for the month of October. The Flames will return to the field on Wednesday, Oct. 8 in El Paso, Texas when Liberty tangles with UTEP for the first of seven straight conference games.
“Turnovers on offense,” Chadwell said when explaining what the team must improve on to find some success this season. “You can’t win games when you’re turning the ball over. That’s the biggest issue offensively. The biggest issue defensively, we have to tackle. Even tonight we had some guys in some situations. We got to continue to tackle better. Special teams, we’ve just got to make some kicks. Those are the three things that if we can improve those things, we will go make a run.”
*photo courtesy Liberty University Athletics
