|
Liberty, Canes in bowl today |
|
|
|
|
Nov 19, 2009 at 01:23 PM |
By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor
Liberty High will make its first postseason football appearance today at 7 p.m. when it hosts Mount Dora in the West Kissimmee Rotary Osceola County Scholarship Bowl.
Tickets are $6. Parking is $5.
The Chargers, 7-3, were off last week after their 33-12 victory over rival Poinciana in the regular season finale.
Mount Dora, 6-4, rolled over Belleview, 47-0.
The Hurricanes lost a three-way playoff for the 2B-4 district championship Nov. 9.
“They’re pretty good. They’ve got a couple of pretty quick kids with a lot of talent,” Liberty Coach Doug Nichols said.
Mount Dora senior receiver Cornelius Whitehead already committed to UCF, and sophomore quarterback Vegas Harley threw three TD passes at Belleview last week.
“The Whitehead kid is big time, he’s like 6-1, 190, and you can tell he’s a great athlete,” Nichols said.
Liberty brings Osceola County’s leading rusher, J.J. Elisis (1,028 yards, 14 TDs) into the game, as well as a strong defensive front that includes standout linebackers in Gelvin Harmon and Jean Leon and safety Patrice Pierre.
Nichols said he ran less intense practices this week.
“We got off the field about an hour early Monday, and the kids are asking, ‘This is it?” Nichols said. “I told them we’ve been doing this 14 weeks, and if they didn’t know how to tackle by now, another hour of practice isn’t going to help. We want this to be like a reward for them.”
But the Chargers will play to win tonight.
“We’ve got a great group of seniors, and I told them that if we win this game, they’ll finish 15-16, which isn’t bad for a new program after three seasons,” Nichols said. “I told them 7-3 is good, but 8-3 looks a lot better, so that’s our goal this week, to get eight wins.”
|
