LIBERTY CENTER – For the second week in a row, the Liberty Center gridders will be at home Friday night, entertaining the defending Northwest Ohio Athletic League champion Wauseon Indians.
Wauseon is presently 5-1 overall and 2-1 in the conference standings. Their lone setback was to Delta (20-14) three Fridays ago, while they own victories over Fairview, Fostoria, Tinora, Archbold and Bryan.
Coach Travis Cooper’s squad is averaging 27 points a game, while surrendering only 12 points per outing.
Leading scorer has been JJ Kauffman (6-1, 170) with nine touchdowns and the senior has completed 46 aerials in 71 attempts for 470 yards and three scores. Leading receivers have been seniors Ty Leininger (6-1, 155) with 11 receptions for 136 yards and Mason Creager (6-0, 165) with 16 catches for 129 yards.
Leading rushers are junior Brendan Wilson (6-1, 173) with 53 yards on 69 totes, along with Kauffman (374 yards on 74 carries). Creager averages about 17 yards per punt return, while Wilson has been leading the team in tackles.
Liberty Center opened the autumn with setbacks to Tinora and Napoleon, but the Tigers have been improving each Friday night and now own verdicts over Nelsonville-York, Patrick Henry, Evergreen and Delta.
“We’re coming off the ball really well and our line is doing an excellent job,” commented Tiger coach Rex Lingruen. “The biggest thing right now is that we have to stay healthy. We have a couple guys banged up, but we have been fortunate in having guys fill in and performing well.”
Leading the Tigers in rushing is Zach Carpenter with 728 yards and nine scores on 122 carries. Next in line is Dylan Sexton with 452 yards, but Sexton is questionable after an injury in the Delta game.
Brooks Hinton had an efficient night throwing against Delta and now has 17 completions for 264 yards and a pair of TDs. Leading receiver is Christian Chambers with six catches for 83 yards.
On defense, it is still Logan Smith leading the way with 73 tackles, 6.5 tackles-for-loss, four sacks, an interception and a fumble recovery. Hinton has three interceptions to his credit in the secondary.
Carpenter has been able to get extra yardage after getting through the holes created by the Tiger line and Lingruen added, “If you are a fullback in our system, you had better be ready to run hard. Zach has picked it up and I think he is a lot better than the first couple of weeks.
“Chambers is really playing good football right now. I think that people don’t realize that he is an excellent blocker, he runs the ball well and he has made a couple of great catches,” Lingruen went on. “He is just a great plus for us.”
Turning his attention to Wauseon, Lingruen noted, “Wauseon has the best line that we have seen so far. They come off the ball and they are very dangerous. Their offense is spread and they make you defend the entire field.
“They have some big fast kids, but the only thing that has been hurting them is that they have been turning the ball over quite a bit,” concluded the Tiger coach. “Hopefully, we can cause some turnovers, but if they put it all together they are a very good football team.”
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Tiger Stadium.
