By Jeffery R. Ratliff

Northwest Signal

LIBERTY CENTER — Liberty Center coach Casey Mohler told his team after the game they are on a mission and to keep their focus. They certainly had it in the postseason opener.

Liberty Center scored on its first eight possessions, all in the first half, and cruised to a 56-14 win in the first round of the Division V, region 18 playoffs against Elmwood at Rex Lingruen Stadium Friday night.

“We want to see how good we can be,” said Mohler, whose Tigers rushed for 372 yards. “Every week is an opportunity to see that.

“I thought we executed very well, right from the start,” added Mohler.

The Tigers needed just three plays after the opening kick-off to find the end zone, with Trenton Kruse rumbling 38 yards to paydirt.

That’s when the defense took over.

Zac Weaver picked off a third-down screen pass at the 21-yard line and Colton Kruse caught a screen pass and scored on the next play, giving LC a 14-0 lead 2:08 into the game.

“That has been the story of our season,” said Mohler. “The defense has been getting us great field position. You do that, create some turnovers and score early … that puts a lot of pressure on the other team.”

“They are a really good football team,” said Elmwood coach Greg Bishop. “When you play against a team that good, you have to give yourself a chance and we couldn’t do that.

“I am proud of our guys,” added Bishop. “They kept battling. We are a young team and everything we are doing is abut getting better.”

After forcing an Elmwood punt, Colton Kruse scored on the first play from scrimmage — a 48-yard run around the end.

The Royals picked up their first first down on their next possession, but again was forced to punt. On third down, Colton Kruse scored his third touchdown of the opening period — a 56-yard scamper through the middle of the field.

Landon Amstutz found Brooks Behnfeldt for a 41-yard pass play, setting up a 1-yard TD plunge by Trenton Kruse on the first play of the second period.

The Tigers, playing their second unit, added a pair of touchdown runs by Walyon Rentz (26 and 28 yards) and one by Thomas Mohler (55 yards) before intermission.

With the running clock to start the second half, Elmwood scored on a pair of long passes to close out the scoring. Pierson Parsons connected with Brady Mareches for TDs of 83 ad 80 yards.

“It was nice to see them get a couple of TD passes,” said Bishop. “We had some young guys step up.

“Our seniors, over the last four years, have played in 10 playoff games,” added Bishop. “That is a lot of games a lot of other teams in Ohio would like to have played in. They have done a lot for this program.”

Parsons finished the game 15 of 28 passing for 243 yards with two TDs and an interception. Mareches had 10 catches for 221 yards and both scores.

Colton Kruse led the Tigers with 117 yards rushing on three carries, while Rentz added 68 yards on the ground and Mohler tallied 63 yards. Trenton Kruse also had 44 yards rushing.

“Whatever we do we want to execute,” said Mohler. “This was a good game because we were able to get a lot of guys in the game and rest some of the players that are going to be playing a lot more from this point forward.”

Elmwood bows out at 3-8, while Liberty Center is 11-0 and will face either Huron or Genoa next week at Kip Kern Field.