By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Salina Liberty’s undefeated season rolled on tonight with a 61-54 win at home over the Dodge City Law.
The Liberty survived a late surge by Dodge City to collect their eighth win of the season and advance to 8-0 while the Law fall to 3-3 on the year.
With another win over a top three opponent, Salina continues to bat down their competition, tightening their stranglehold on first place heading into the final four weeks of the regular season.
Mitch Kidd was excellent once again, completing 16-19 for 192 yards and six touchdowns on the day in place of the injured Tyrie Adams.
“He’s a guy who waited for his opportunity all season and he’s gotten it the last two weeks to showcase what he brings to the table,” Liberty head coach Heron O’Neal said. “He’s a different type of quarterback that teams will have to deal with and find ways to slow down.”
While Kidd was fantastic in this game, the Liberty had to strike quickly, as Dodge City did everything in their power to keep the ball out of Salina’s hands.
That mission was accomplished as the Law won the time of possession battle by 13 minutes, nearly a whole quarter. When the Liberty did take possession however, Dodge City had no answers as Salina scored on all but their final drive of the game.
“We gave up 54 points,” O’Neal said. “That’s the most we’ve given up all year so there are definitely some things we need to do better and understand but they only stopped us once offensively so I can’t be upset at all about our production tonight.”
Salina got out to a big early lead, up 27-9 with under a minute to play before halftime. Dodge City would cut into that lead on either side of the break, and strung together a run of three touchdowns in the fourth quarter to make it close, but Kidd and company kept victory just out of the reach and iced the game on a seven yard touchdown run by the QB.
Salina will have another bye week to regroup and heal up before hitting the road for a trip to Omaha on June 12th.
More importantly, this win puts Dodge City permanently out of reach of first place in the CIF. Any combination of a Liberty win or an Omaha loss will secure the one-seed and home field advantage for Salina this postseason.
For more on Liberty football in 2021 stay tuned to the Salina Post.