By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Salina Liberty will return to the Tony’s Pizza Events Center one final time in the 2022 regular season as the team looks to put on a show against the Topeka Tropics on Military Appreciation Night.
The 5-3 Liberty enter the final two weeks of the season tied with Omaha for the three-seed, with a first-round bye held by Billings still in their sights.
“We still want home field and that’s still within reach,” Salina HC Heron O’Neal said. “But the main thing is still improving on the week before every time we take the field and that doesn’t change with our opponents.”
This week's foe comes in the form of the 0-8 Topeka Tropics, still in search of the first win of their inaugural season. Despite the troubles for Topeka, the Tropics have played much better down the stretch and taken some of the best teams in the league deep into games.
“They have a lot of new skilled athletes and veterans up front on offense,” O’Neal said. “Their record is not indicative of who they are and we can’t overlook them, we have to prepare for war.”
After putting on a show with three touchdowns in last week's big win in Sioux City, Javin Kilgo has been named QB1 and will start under center this week for a revitalized Liberty offense.
“Kilgo is a guy that we’ve been after for a little while here and the stars finally aligned that we were able to get him,” he said. “He’s extremely talented, he understands our system well and he has supreme arm talent. He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do and we would be crazy to not name him the starter for right now.”
This will also be Kilgo’s debut in front of the Liberty faithful as Salina prepares for one final home game ahead of the 2022 playoffs.
“We’re extremely excited to get back home and to stay off that bus,” O’Neal said. “It’s nice to wake up in your own bed and sometimes you take that for granted until you have a long road trip. I can’t wait to have the warmth of our crowd embrace us and we have a lot of special things happening for Military Appreciation Night.”
Kickoff between the Liberty and Tropics is set for 6:35 pm with the official tailgate starting the party at 3.
As always, the game can be heard on KINA (910 AM or 107.5 FM) courtesy of Eagle Radio.