By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
On the heels of a 45-38 victory over the Southwest Kansas Storm, the Salina Liberty will return to Tony’s Pizza Events Center to close out their homestand in a non-league tilt with the Queen City Insane Asylum.
Going into this week's action, the Liberty hold a league record of 5-2, sitting a game and a half out of first and two and a half games ahead of the next closest team in fifth.
Salina also holds both the reigning CIF Offensive Player of the Week and the reigning Special Teams Player of the Week, after another strong kicking day for James Kazalski and an excellent debut for newly signed quarterback Ed Crouch.
“He had a pretty good debut and he’s stabilized our quarterback position,” O’Neal said. “You see his arm and ability to throw with both power and touch but you also saw how he can run with straight-line speed or shake-and-bake guys. If I had to sum it up in one word I was impressed, and we know he’s only going to get better.”
With a roster ravaged by injury, this week's exhibition matchup will allow the Liberty to take some time to get guys right, but will also provide them with an opportunity to test their depth as the final pieces of their contender fall into place.
“We’ll have a couple players that we’ll use this week to rest up and get healthy but we also have several guys that I’m excited to see and evaluate with some substantial playing time in a game like this,” O’Neal said.
Among those players is another fresh face at QB in Nick Eilers, who will get his first real shot this Saturday against the Asylum.
In their pursuit of perfection, Salina has highlighted taking care of the football as their biggest point of emphasis in this game, following a bit of a shaky performance last week.
“We need to cut down on our turnovers,” he said. “We had way too many against Southwest Kansas and that can’t happen. That’s the number one thing we’re focusing on this week.”
Kickoff between the Liberty and Asylum is scheduled for 6:35 PM at Tony’s Pizza Events Center, and as always the game can be heard on KINA (910 AM or 107.5 FM) courtesy of Eagle Radio.