Coldspring

[Brahma73]

How did Coldspring / Liberty head-to-head turn out? Is Coldspring a factor in D2 playoffs? I hear a lot about Liberty. Just wondering...

[trojandad]

Geez Brahma 73, suffice it to say that the night that Liberty/Coldspring played, the board was filled with "Did I hear correctly about the Liberty-CS game?" I was there, I have the entire thing on tape, and I still don't believe it.

Liberty was ahead 21-12 with 2:33 left in the 4th. They had just intercepted the ball from us and had it on their 10 yd line. They ran a handoff off left tackle and our linebacker grabbed their running back (Moss) at the 6 yd line. Moss did the smart thing and tried to just drop there but before he could get down, Bradford (our linebacker) had flipped him over and actually thrown him the five yards toward his own goalline. As his momentum carried him into his zone, he tried to run out but got tripped for a safety with 2:23 left. Coldspring trailed 21-14.

Liberty kicked to us and held us, actually forcing a 4th and 30. Our QB hit #3 Leodis Sparks for 43 yds for a first down (irony was Leodis had dropped 4 passes in his hands earlier, that was his first catch of the night). Our QB Darius Brown ran around right end 2 plays for 35 yds down to the 6 with Aaron Brown, our FB going in for the score. Darius ran the two point conversion in and we led 22-21 with !:19 left. (Think I haven't watched that tape a time or two, lol)

Liberty took the kickoff and drove down to our 26 with :08 left. Their kicker tried a 42 yarder, had plenty of length but missed it bare inches to the right.

Before that game I had never heard of a team, high school, college or pro being up 9 with 2:33 left and first down and loosing the game. I have heard many things on the board since the game about how Liberty clock managed wrong or shouldn't have run into their endzone and such. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Liberty had to run the clock out, they couldn't just take a knee three times because we could have stopped the clock. And the week before we had beaten Splendora from 50 yds out with :30 left, so they wanted to depend on the backs that had done well all night to run the clock out. And Moss wasn't within 6 yds of the endzone on his run. He was gonna run wide and not go out of bounds. Our linebacker, Ryan Bradford, is practically the strongest man on our team and grabbed Moss on the 6 and judo flipped (lol) Moss backwards. To heave a strong heavy runner like Moss that far was just crazy.

Liberty could have easily won that game. I don't believe that kicker misses that kick 9 times out of 10. He just did that once. No doubt it was difficult for the Liberty guys too, as the year before Coldspring was ahead 7-6 with 5 minutes to go in the third when the game had to be called for lightning. Was a tough two years in a row.

Both set of fans were great, tho. They must have stood and applauded both teams for 10 minutes after it was over. Very moving. Each team knew the other could have easily won that game.

So that's the story of CS-Liberty '02, Brahma73, most competitive 3 minutes of football I've ever seen. Good luck to both teams in the playoffs, they both deserve it.

[Brahma73]

Wow Trojandad! I feel like I've been to the game now!! Sorry I have to plead ignorance. I've only been on 3ADL for 4 days and I didn't get all the post-game hoopla. Must have been THE classic of all time. Nothin' like HS football. Thanx again for the details. Good luck to y'all down the road...