By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
On Saturday night, the Salina Liberty will look to do something that no sports team in the 163 year history of the city of Salina has done.
Bring the town their first national championship.
To do this, the Liberty will need to overcome the only team to defeat them in the regular season as they host the Omaha Beef in the sixth ever CIF Champions Bowl.
These teams have taken very different routes to get to this stage, but neither will be content with any result that doesn’t see them hoist the trophy when the final whistle blows.
Salina has looked like the team to beat since day one, winning their season opener over the Wichita Force by 25 points and never looking back.
The Liberty boast the best scoring offense in the league by over two touchdowns per game. Their balanced offense leads the league in rushing yards and passing touchdowns.
On the other side of the ball, Salina has put together a defense that has generated more turnovers than any other team this season and allows the second-fewest points per game.
For the Beef, it took a late-season surge to even make the four-team playoff. Omaha stumbled out of the gate to a 2-3 league start but came roaring back, winning four of their last five, including a big one over Salina, to secure the two-seed.
After eliminating the Sioux City Bandits in a nail-biting 40-39 victory last week, the Beef will hit the road and head for Salina, where the Liberty defeated them 26-8 in the first meeting between the two.
Omaha has the best scoring defense in the league as the only team to hold opponents under 30 points per game.
Salina will look to maintain their momentum from a 55-31 win over the Dodge City Law in the semi-final last week.
“I saw a balanced offense in that game,” Liberty head coach Heron O’Neal said. “Tracy Brooks did an excellent job running and catching the football, our return team looked really good and for the fourth week in a row, our defense held an opponent to under 40 points.”
Coach O also addressed an Omaha team that looks much different than it did in the first meeting between the two in Salina.
“When you watch them on film you see a very efficient offense,” he said. “You see a quarterback who has total command of the weapons around him. You see a very stingy defense with great DBs, a linebacker who makes a lot of plays, and a kicker who has played very well down the stretch.”
This game could conclude the unfinished business tour that Salina has been on since 2019 when they were stuffed at the goal line on the final play of the fifth Champions Bowl by the Duke City Gladiators.
“Our defense returned all but three or four players from 2019 and a good part of our offense came back as well,” O’Neal said. “For a lot of those guys that was their first championship game and those veterans bring a sense of calm to our locker room.”
Unlike 2019, the Liberty will have home-field advantage for this season’s finale, and the Tony’s Pizza Events Center will be rocking as attendance is projected to reach an all-time high again this week.
“We’re a different team at home when we have that extra juice from our fans,” he said. “We’re looking forward to having that loud Salina crowd feuling us on Saturday as we go out there to try and bring the city their first-ever national championship.”
Since the formation of the CIF there have been five Champions Bowls, the home team has won all five.
This game could also represent an opportunity for several members of the Liberty to go out on top, as veterans like Kendrick Harper, Isiah Barfield, Jake Lattimer and Kamalie Matthews are not guaranteed to return to the field next season.
Kickoff for the sixth CIF Champions Bowl is set for 6:35 pm at the 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.