On Friday night, the lucky numbers for Whitehall’s RB Saquon Barkley Friday were: 33,41, 50 and 57. Those were part of his 208 yards on just 13 carries as the Zephyrs defeated Liberty at Frank Banko Field 28-19. Though head coach Brian Gilbert called the overall performance of his team “a Sloppy Effort.”
The game did not start out that way as Whitehall went 74 yards on a 10 play drive, that was assisted by a too many men on the field penalty on Liberty on a crucial 4th down punt. Barkley capped the drive with a 33 burst around end for his first score.
“We had a bad week of practice and the players knew it after the game.” Gilbert stated. “We can’t have that again, going forward,” He added.
Barkley scored his second score on a 41 yard run to give the Zephs a 14-0 lead. “The line gave me the holes where I had one-on one matchups, where I had to make that guy miss, and I did just that.” Barkley stated. He had an up the gut 50 yard scamper to put his team up 21-6 in the third quarter.
Liberty standout wide receiver KJ Williams who has verbally committed to Syracuse had his first start of the season after a knee injury kept him out of the opener. He got the Hurricanes back in the game with a 2 yd TD pass, his 23rd of his career to cut Whitehall’s lead to 21-13.
On the ensuing kickoff, Whitehall got great field position and Barkley took it to the house from 57 yards out to up the lead to 28-13 as Liberty only had 10 players on the field.
Liberty’s Ryan Lawrence tried keeping the score close with a touchdown of his own on a one yard dive into the end zone to cut the lead to 28-19 with 6:58 to go in the game. Ryan Bonshack sealed the deal for Whitehall, who is now 2-0 on the young season, with a interception.
“We made too many errors and we can’t do that against Freedom here next week.” Barkley said. He is looking forward to a chance to play here again next week.
