By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
After surviving the Topeka Tropics in an overtime thriller last week, the Salina Liberty will be eager to get back to work this Sunday as they make the trek to Rapid City for a matchup with the Marshals.
At 2-1, the Liberty will have an excellent opportunity to re-establish themselves in the upper echelon of the CIF with a win this week while the Marshals desperately continue their search for a first league win at 0-3.
Despite trailing Topeka big last week, Salina never hung their heads, stringing together big drives and monumental stops to complete the comeback effort.
“The first half of that game was far from indicative of who we are as a team but I was impressed by the will that our ball club showed after going down early,” Liberty head coach Heron O’Neal said. “True we didn’t play well, and defensively we haven’t played well all season, but that shows you the will of the Salina Liberty.”
One of the biggest contributors to that 66-65 win came in the unexpected form of special teams, which went from being Salina’s biggest hole, to one of its biggest assets, thanks to a perfect kicking day from newly signed boot James Kazalski, and a return touchdown by Kevin Simmons, who would be named CIF Special Teams Player of the Week.
“I can’t take any credit for the special teams,” O’Neal said. “Coach Spiller put a great game plan together with our kick return and coverage. I also have to give a lot of credit to Kazalski, the first time I met him was on game day, and for him to come in and hit the game-winner like that and also to be perfect on the day on extra points made a heck of an impression on the team.”
Now, the Liberty will turn their attention to a Rapid City team that went scorched earth on its roster this week, making seven cuts, seven signings, and two IR moves after a 49-18 loss to Billings last week.
“We have film on Rapid City but a lot of those guys aren’t there anymore,” he said. “We know the schemes they like to run and some of that will translate but it’s tough when you’re scouting guys who are no longer there.”
With their week five opponent shaping up to be a relative unknown, Salina will once again shift the focus to within, and look to shore up the few holes they still need to patch as they work towards midseason form.
“I’m still looking to see more improvement out of our secondary,” he said. “We made some good strides in the second half of the Topeka game, it was the first time all year where we consistently made the right plays and I’m hoping we can improve upon that because Rapid City can score points in bunches.”
When these two kick things off on Sunday evening, defense will be paramount for a Liberty squad that ranks middle of the pack in points per game allowed, lagging 33 points behind the league leader.
“We have to play better on defense,” O’Neal said. “We can’t continue to have busted coverages and we have to make better plays on the football. We also can’t let the trip itself make cowards of us, being on a bus for 10-12 hours isn’t easy to do but everybody has to do it and how we perform on the field will be affected by how we handle this ride.”
Kickoff between the Liberty and Marshals is scheduled for 6:00 CT at Summit Arena in South Dakota and as always the game can be heard on KINA (910 AM or 107.5 FM) courtesy of Eagle Radio.
For continuing coverage of Salina Liberty football all season long, stay tuned to the Salina, JC, and Little Apple Posts.