Five INTs, blocked punt TD help West Laurens pick off Liberty County to preserve hopes in region

HINESVILLE – Post-touchdown tries have historically been an adventure in the West Laurens-Liberty County series, whose two other editions before Friday were both decided on go-ahead two-point attempts that the Panthers held out of the end zone to win overtime games in 2008 and 09. 

The teams were a combined 1-for-5 following the touchdowns scored Friday in their first meeting since, with an early PAT by Duggan Malone the only routine conversion of the night. 

But the Raiders found some other ways of getting their point across in a statement victory to take their record above the .500 mark, and preserve a marginal shot at the region title with two weeks left in the regular season. 

The 28-6 rout continued a season-long theme of strong defense, and the more recent trend of interceptions, which have come in bunches over three of West’s last four games. 

The Raiders (5-4, 4-1 region) picked off five passes, and blocked a punt, to headline the dominant night that wrapped up a grueling stretch of eight games in a row, and five of them away from the SHU, where they’ll return after Friday’s open date to celebrate senior night against Windsor Forest Nov. 6

“I think we’re 4-1 on the road this year,” said West Laurens head coach Kip Burdette. “We’ve done well on the road, and I’m proud of that. It’s hard to go places. Defense travels, and we played excellent on defense tonight.” 

It was an unusual game to say the least. 

Special teams produced 10 points, defense six and offense the remaining 12 of the Raiders’ total. 

The D held Liberty County to under 100 total yards, and had its first five-turnover night since those in consecutive blowouts of Cross Creek in 2024 and 25. The block was the special teams’ unit’s fourth of the season.

“Without all those turnovers and interceptions, I don’t think we’d be talking about the result that we had,” Burdette said. “It was an excellent job defensively. We blocked a punt, which is mostly defensive guys. But the defensive unit is the one that’s on the punt block.” 

Kingston O’Neal became a 17th defender in school history with two interceptions in a game. 

His first was an easy pick-six to stretch the West lead to 13-0 early in quarter 2. The second, early in the third, compounded some growing offensive frustration for the Panthers, who would soon after make a change at quarterback. 

A first in the career of sophomore safety Jamari Blash, early in the second quarter, was the pivot point on a potential Liberty County scoring drive that turned into an 81-yard West Laurens march in the other direction to go up by three scores on the way to halftime. 

Stephen Odom and Tripp NeSmith followed with plays to nab passes of backup Jack Jacobson in the third and fourth. 

A sixth big play that wasn’t officially a takeaway, but had the same effect, opened the first-quarter scoring as J.D. Hogan blocked a Liberty County punt, and Kelsey Ashley carried it back about 25 yards to the end zone. 

“These guys work their tails off every day,” said West Laurens defensive coordinator Kenny Murphy. “We talk about turnovers. We want to create turnovers to get the ball back to our offense, and help this team win. We haven’t been getting a lot of them, but tonight in a region championship-style game, they showed up for us.” 

The Panthers’ quarterbacks, altogether, completed only two passes out of their 13 for a grand total of four yards. Their backfield accounted for the remainder of 97 total yards. 

Maxx Chafin and NeSmith had two tackles each for loss. Hogan’s dozen stops led the defense. 

Special effects… 

The kicking game was a double-edged sword. 

The Raiders benefitted from more plays there than they didn’t, but missed a point-after, had a few bad snaps, got a punt blocked and misfired on a two-point conversion attempt. 

But Malone did connect on a 25-yard field goal for some second-half insurance, and was lined up for a 35-yarder in hopes of doing the same late in the fourth as Liberty County jumped offside to allow a continuance of a drive that would run the clock inside a minute, and ultimately end in a door-slamming touchdown.

The phase also yielded West’s first non-offensive score of the night, with Hogan as the unblocked of two rushers off the left side who came in after the punt of Noel Best at the end of the Panthers’ first possession. 

“We spent all week looking on film, it took them 3.1 seconds for them to snap it to the punter and get it off,” Hogan said. “We practiced all week, and we knew we were going to get one this game.” 

Ashley completed some unfinished business from the week before, on a fumble return at Long County that was forced out of bounds at the 1, as he was tackled into the end zone on the end of the runback to get the Raiders on the board.

Hogan would make a huge diving catch near midfield to convert a third down and get the Raiders into Panther territory for a second time on the ensuing turn. But some costly presnap penalties had them kicking it back, just moments before O’Neal read and jumped in front of a looping bubble screen pass for an easy 20-yard runback. 

A kick off the upright left the score at 13-0 Raiders. 

Liberty County, despite some big kickoff returns for plus field position early in the game, mostly did itself in with mistakes in the same situations that had two key drives in the second half starting from inside its own 12. 

Bad snaps were just as much a booger for the Panthers, who were starting a backup center. 

Injuries continued to hurt their cause as the game went on, with top safety and returner Nykiem Ezell and running back Best (who gave the Raider defense most of its trouble) spending a good portion of the game on the sideline after early nicks and bruises. 

A long Ezell kickoff return had them in position to cut the Raiders’ first-half lead to a score before Blash’s interception created a two-touchdown swing to stretch it to 19. 

Multiple Williams runs, leading to his extending catch to salvage a third-and-long, got West Laurens within range to score again on a rollout completion from Duggan Malone to Tripp Mascaro. 

The Raiders couldn’t sustain much in the second half, but turned the second O’Neal pick into points on Malone’s field goal in the third quarter. 

That 22-0 lead was cut to 16 by Liberty County’s lone scoring drive, assisted by a long kickoff return and West Laurens unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Jacobson hit Aaron Brown on a key pass inside the 5, then snuck home on a third and goal. 

But a wildcat run by Jahair Rodriguez would be stopped on the two-point try to leave a margin of 16 that, considering the rivalry’s history of nailbiting finishes, would be too close for comfort with only 14 minutes left.  

West Laurens punted a couple times more, and had the second of those blocked to put Liberty County in a great situation to start the fourth quarter. But the Raiders once again came up with an interception – this one by Odom – and converted it after a handful of plays on a five-yard run by Kaden Bloodsaw. 

The score, coming with under a minute to go, was necessary to grab some key points that could help the Raiders in the event of a three-way tie for first in the region that would require a Harlem loss to either Liberty this coming Friday, or New Hampstead the next. 

“The point differential is the region tiebreaker, and it just happens with the teams in the tie, so if we were to be in a tiebreaker, that’s why we scored that last touchdown,” Burdette said. “We could’ve ended the game. I was about to, and some of our assistants said, ‘Coach, Coach! Tiebreaker, tiebreaker!’ And I was like, ‘Oh yeah, we’ve gotta punch it in.’ I’m glad we were able to punch it in.

“It maxes out at 17, so we got all we could get. Maybe they’ll go beat Harlem next week.” 

They’d go on and take a knee after Nesmith’s pick on Liberty County’s only remaining play. 

West Laurens rushed for 131 of its 210 total yards, with Bloodsaw in the lead on 23 attempts for 89. Malone completed 3-of-4 for 79. 

Williams’ catch, for the same number as his rushing total on seven carries, finished with 76 all-purpose yards.