Football: A lot on the line for Liberty Friday

By Adam McFadden • October 29, 2009 4:25 pm

Liberty will face Mount Si Friday night with the KingCo’s second seed on the line.

After a loss to Bellevue last week, Liberty (7-1 overall, 4-1 league) cannot win the KingCo. Even so, seeding and momentum heading into the state playoffs is on the line Friday.

The Wildcats are on a roll. After starting the year 1-3, the team has won its past four.

“They are playing their best football at the end of the season,” said Liberty coach Steve Valach. “And are gaining momentum as they head into the playoffs.”

Last week’s 42-6 win over Juanita cemented the notion that Mount Si is playing much better than its 5-3 overall record shows.

“I was really impressed with their won over Juanita,” Valach said. “On the road, a must win and they absolutely dominated.”

Mount Si can run and pass well, but its biggest weapon against Liberty could be the ability to maintain long drives and keep the Patriots’ explosive offense off the field.

Liberty has a real challenge of an opponent to round out the regular season, which should help the team rebound from an emotional 27-21 loss to Bellevue last week.

“Mount Si and Liberty is always an intense, physical, football game,” Valach said. “Our kids will have no trouble getting up for this game and moving on from the Bellevue game.”

The winner of this game takes the KingCo’s No. 2 seed and the loser takes the league’s No. 3 seed. On the surface, the third seed is actually advantageous because that seed would play close to home against Hazen.

The No. 2 seed will travel quite a distance to face either the loser of the Union/Camas game Friday.

However, there are two big reasons to play hard for the No. 2 seed: momentum and avoiding Bellevue.

The No. 2 seed will be on the opposite side of the bracket of the Wolverines, only possibly seeing them in the state title game. The No. 3 seed would meet the Wolverines in the early rounds.

“I would much rather win our last regular season game going into the playoffs. Momentum is huge,” Valach said. “Camas, Hazen… we want to win against Mount Si and move on from there.”