Bethlehem Liberty quarterback Doug Erney was able to exorcise some demons he had faced in his last three meetings with Whitehall. Friday night in front of a packed homecoming crowd at BASD Stadium, Erney and the Hurricanes dismantled the Zephyrs 42-7.
“I’ve had some tough games against these guys the past few years, it was nice to be on the positive side for a change,” a relieved Erney said after his teams’ performance.
Liberty took advantage of three interceptions of Whitehall quarterback Gianni Sinatore, in the opening quarter in route to 21 points. The first coming off a fourth down play, when DB Justin Haynes took an errant pass 90 yards down the sideline for the first score of the game.
On Whitehall’s next possession, again on a fourth down play, Liberty’s Victor Santiago made a diving pick at the Hurricanes 20, which led to a 45 yard scoring pass from Erney to Santiago and a 14-0 lead.
On the Zephys first play of the next possession Sinatore was snake-bit by Joey Curzi on the visitors 24 yard line. Jayden Figueroa hauled in a 15 yard pass from Erney with under a minute left in the quarter.
“Those kids made some great plays tonight. They played hard and left nothing to chance,” stated Liberty coach John Truby after the convincing win. “We didn’t want any question afterwards of how good this team is.”
Sinatore got his team on the board with a 11 yard pass to Ryan Klaugh to cut the lead to 21-7 with about five minutes until half. He finished the night 13-28 for 187 yards.
“We shot ourselves in the foot right from the start. We’ve got to figure it out and correct our mistakes,” said a dejected coach Brian Gilbert. “We’ve got to do better job coaching. This isn’t all on Gianni. We all have to work harder and get better going forward,” Gilbert added.
Erney, who finished the night 10-13 for 159 yards, had a nine-yard run for a score and threw another scoring pass to Santiago for 28 yards in the third quarter.
Liberty (3-1 overall 1-1 EPC South) will now travel to face Emmaus, next Friday, who lost to Nazareth 49-36. Whitehall 2-2 overall, 0-2 EPC South, goes to Orefield next week to face rival Parkland, who is ranked third in the state. The Trojans destroyed Pocono Mtn West 63-20.
