Liberty, Pendleton haven't met expectations this season

A season ago, Liberty went into its Week 8 de facto region championship game with Pendleton in the midst of one of the best seasons in school history.

Things are a bit different for both teams this year as they prepare for their showdown at Cunningham Stadium on Friday.

Sitting on the playoff bubble in Region 1-AA, Liberty (4-4, 2-3) has adopted a win-or-go-home mentality the last few weeks. Meanwhile, Pendleton (5-3, 2-2), a preseason region favorite riddled with injuries, is already out of the mix for the region championship and is looking to stay under the radar as the postseason approaches.

Liberty coach Kyle Stewart can understand some fans' disappointment as the Red Devils were coming off a 9-3 season that included a playoff victory. Yet, while his team hasn't quite taken the next step in the rebuilding process, Liberty is a far cry from the 4-46 record it carried from 2007 to 2010.

"It's easy to look at past results and say it'll be duplicated," Stewart said. "But this is a different team."

And it's a lot harder to sneak up on teams after last season.

After suffering significant losses to graduation last year, Liberty dropped three league games in a row to Landrum, Blacksburg and Chesnee, the latter two of which will be playing for the region crown Friday.

But something changed last week against Crescent, this year's surprise team in the region. Up 14-7 at halftime, Stewart and his staff reminded their team that its season was on the line.

"A lot of what we do is mental," Stewart said. "At halftime we had a little spark of emotion and got what we needed."

Liberty forced five turnovers Colby Gibson and Payton Dameron returned interceptions for touchdowns and scored 27 unanswered points in the second half of the 41-7 rout.

See the rest here:
Liberty, Pendleton haven't met expectations this season