The Flames defense had its top performance of the season and the home team got a late fourth quarter touchdown pass from Stephen Calvert, pushing Liberty to a 22-16 win over visiting Troy, Saturday afternoon at Williams Stadium.
With the win, Liberty halted the third longest active road win streak in the country by a FBS team, as Troy had won seven road games in a row coming into the contest.
“I’m really proud of the defensive staff, we kind of made a few adjustments,” Liberty coach Turner Gill said. “We moved Coach Wimberly upstairs in the press box. We moved Marshall Roberts and Josh Bookbinder down on the field because we thought we could get things done a little better. I didn’t know if the team would respond this quickly in the adjustments we made. Obviously we made some adjustments in practice too and our guys bought in and they were eager and paid attention to detail.”
Liberty’s defense came into the game having allowed an average of 21.6 points and 272.2 offensive yards during the second half of its first five games of the season.
However, the Flames allowed only 107 yards on 38 plays (2.82 yards per play) during the last 30 minutes of the game. The Trojans did find the scoreboard twice during the second half, but were only able to add six total points on two Tyler Sumpter field goals.
Calvert finished the game completing 17-of-32 passing attempts for 238 yards, including 69 yards on the game-winning that led to a touchdown with 2:23 remaining. Calvert gave the Flames the lead for good when he completed a nine-yard scoring strike to B.J. Farrow, giving the redshirt senior his fifth career 100-yard game (eight receptions, 101 yards).
During Liberty’s game-winning 14-play, 89-yard drive, the Flames converted on three third-down plays, including two third and long plays of more than 10 yards (27-yard pass to tight end Fidel Obgeifun and 15-yard pass to Farrow).
“Offensively we played well enough to win the game,” Gill said. “We made plays when we had to make them and it wasn’t pretty from an offensive point of view. Special teams wise, it wasn’t pretty from that standpoint but again you got to find a way to win these kinds of games and that is why I am so proud. Every now and then you win and everything is going on synergy and you score a lot of points that all looks good but this is more significant of a win because of the way we played. The opponent we played makes it even greater too and I am just proud of the way our coaching staff came together in a lot of ways.”
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