Judge leads the way in dominating fashion for Valley West in victory over Liberty

by Brian Ptashinski @BPtashinski on Twitter.

KINGSTON – The Liberty high school football team had lots to ponder on their long drive back to Bethlehem Friday night. Most of what will stick in their minds was the play of Wyoming Valley West’s number ten Sean Judge.

Judge ran for 124 yard on 21 carries and four touchdowns. He caught six passes and 135 yards and had a crucial interception to stop a Liberty drive in the first half. All this in his teams’ biggest game to date en route to a convincing 55-35 win in the District 2/4/11 semifinal game played at Spartan Stadium.

Though the play of the Junior RB Judge was impressive, Liberty did little to help its cause on the evening by turning the ball over six times. They had ten penalties for nearly 110 yards. That was just too much to overcome and was a key factor in the loss for the Hurricanes.

“We never stopped competing. We were down a few scores but we kept battling throughout. We got it to one score, but the penalties and turnovers were too much for us to come back from,”  said a dejected Liberty coach John Truby after the game.

The two teams exchanged touchdowns early on and a 14-14 tie. After a interception set the Hurricanes up in great field possession but those who take it, also give it away, as Liberty fumbled the ball back to the Spartans.

Valley West scored off that turnover to take a seven point lead. Liberty’s next drive was moving until QB Doug Erney threw an interception to Judge, who returned it to the ten-yard line. Devon Weidman scored from four yards out. There was a 28-14 lead for the home team.

Gunner Anglovich, for Liberty, got himself in the end zone from 38 yards after the Spartans mishandled a punt to cut the lead to 28-21. But again Valley West had an answer.

Bill Davison leaped over the goal line from a yard out. After the Hurricanes fumbled the ensuing kickoff, a 47 yard TD pass from Aaron Austin to Weidman made it 42-21 at intermission.

“We knew it was going to be a dogfight all night long. Our guys did not quit,” said Valley West coach Pat Keating. “We knew we had to make more plays than them tonight. The turnovers were key to the game.”

Liberty scored three plays into the second half as Anglovich scored from four yards out after he took a handoff 58 yards on the first play of the half. But again the Spartans responded when Austin connected with LJ Wesneski for a 15 yard score and a 49-28 lead with about eight minutes left in the quarter.

Erney then hit Justin Haynes in the end zone from 15 yards to cut the lead to 49-35. Liberty forced a Spartan punt and took over at their own seven, but another interception by the Valley West defense at the Liberty 40 led to the last tally of the night, a 29 yard jaunt by Judge sealed the deal.

Wyoming Valley West (12-0) will now face their next Lehigh Valley opponent in the Trojans of Parkland (11-1), who shutout rival Easton 37-0. That game will be a Spartan Stadium next Friday at 7pm for the District Championship.