Officials stopped game in third quarter due to lightning
You ever hear the riddle: Who wins when two high school football teams with double digit losing streaks who have not scored all season meet for a district matchup? Of course, the game ends in a tie. Sort of.
The Class 3A, District 7 matchup between Liberty and Discovery in Haines City was stopped late in the third quarter due to lightning in the area with the game tied at 6-6. The postponed game will be completed Sept. 14 at Liberty.
Liberty (16 games) and Discovery (15) hope to break long losings streaks when the game resumes.
Liberty’s Ayomide Akinwole punted the ball 28 yards, sprinted down the field, and recovered the ball after a Discovery player touched and fumbled it deep in Spartans territory. Three plays later, Akinwole ran up the middle for a 10-yard touchdown run to score Liberty’s first touchdown of the season. The Chargers had a 6-0 lead with 4:08 left in the second quarter.
“It felt good to get that monkey off our backs,” Liberty coach Denzel Singleton said of the first score of the season.
Akinwole, a junior, started playing football last year and has never won a high school football game. He said the team was excited when they jumped out to the lead. He didn’t realize the Discovery player had touched the punt, but just did his job and went for the tackle and the ball.
“I felt confused and excited,” Akinwole said of his thoughts when the officials gave him a fumble recovery. He had 10 carries for 46 yards when the game was stopped.
Not to be outdone, Discovery scored its first touchdown of the season to tie the game as time ran out in the second quarter. Quarterback Jonathan Bailey connected with Dallas Williams for a 22-year touchdown pass. The touchdown that tied the game at 6-all came after a late sideline hit by a Liberty player put the Spartans 15 yards closer to the endzone.
“One of the things that we talked about this week was discipline, effort, and execution,” Singleton said. “ We had to check all three boxes, and we didn't check the discipline box today. We shot ourselves in the foot several times with penalties.”
