LEXINGTON, Va. - Senior running back Dre Barnes rushed for 180 yards on 24 carries and senior Sam Gado rushed for 116 yards and three scores as Liberty defeated VMI, 38-17, in Big South football action Saturday afternoon at Alumni Memorial Field in Lexington.
Liberty finished its Big South conference play at 3-1, and moved to 4-5 overall. VMI remained winless in ten games.
The Flames piled up 511 yards total offense, including 320 rushing yards, and controlled the football for 35:38 in time of possession. Flame junior quarterback Brock Farrel completed 10 of 19 passes for 172 yards and two touchdowns.
VMI quarterback Kirk Monteleone set a new school single game mark for completions with 27 in 41 attempts for 234 yards and one touchdown. But the Keydets could only manage 86 rushing yards despite generating a season-high 320 yards total offense.
Liberty never trailed in the contest, and opened the scoring at the 5:50 mark of the first quarter when Barnes took a screen pass to the endzone for a 20-yard score. The drive was prolonged when Gado took a short snap in punt formation and raced 37 yards on the fake to the VMI 24. Three plays later, Liberty had a 7-0 lead.
The Flames extended the lead to 14-0 when Gado's six-yard angle run capped an 11-play, 80-yard scoring drive that ended two plays into the second quarter. The drive was keyed by a third down-15 pass from Farrell to Lauren Williams to the VMI 10.
VMI freshman placekicker Barrett Way blasted a 53-yard field goal to put VMI on the board with 6:54 left in the half. The field goal was the longest in Alumni Memorial Field history, surpassing Marshall kicker Kevin Gault's 51-yard shot in 1986. Way's field goal also tied him with Matt Sharpe for the second longest field goal in school history, surpassed only by Matt Maxey's 57-yarder against Georgia Southern in 2000.
Gado's second touchdown, a two-yard run with :59 ticks left in the half, pushed the Liberty lead to 21-3. Gado sparked the scoring drive when he took a swing pass on a fourth and eight at the VMI 23 and raced 21 yards to the VMI two-yard line before hitting paydirt one play later. Prior to the drive, Liberty had thwarted a VMI scoring threat when the Keydets blocked a punt which gave them the ball at the LU 15. The Keydets moved to the Liberty 3 on a Sean Mizzer 12-yard run, but two rushes for loss, an incomplete pass, and a blocked Way field goal attempt by Micheal Allen turned the tide back in LU's direction.
The Keydets answered before halftime when Monteleone engineered a seven play, 56-yard drive topped by a four-yard slant pattern to junior wideout Zohn Burden with :03 left in the half. Way's extra-point cut the margin to 21-10 at halftime. Moneleone's 24-yard scramble to the LU 4 and his six of seven passing for 32 yards (three completions to freshman back Nate Jackson) on the drive gave VMI momentum heading into locker room.
Liberty took control of the game by dominating the third quarter. The Flames limited VMI's offense to seven snaps and 17 yards in the period. Liberty tacked on two more scores, a 19-yard field goal by Zacry Kolegue and 20-yard pass play from Farrel to Williams to push the LU lead to 38-17 after three quarters.
Sean Mizzer's one-yard TD run capping an 11-play, 79-yard drive cut the deficit to 31-17 with 6:40 remaining, but any hopes of a furious rally that Liberty displayed in last year's game between the teams were short-lived when Gado dashed 52 yards for his third touchdown of the day with 5:11 left.
Senior defensive back Jordan Alford and senior linebacker Nate Vaughn each had eight tackles for the Flames, and junior defensive back Shane Lancaster picked off a Moneleone pass late in the game for the contest's only turnover.
VMI's defense generated 12 tackles for loss for -27 yards, and junior linebacker Todd Baldwin had 14 stops including three for loss while junior free safety Robert Mason had 13 tackles.
Burden and Gary Price each extended their consecutive catch streaks to 22 games and will have a chance to tie Kevin Solomon's school record of 23 in two weeks when VMI plays Wofford Nov. 20. The Keydets have their first scheduled off-week since 1997 next Saturday.
Liberty travels to Chattanooga to face the Mocs next Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
VMI HEAD COACH CAL MCCOMBS - "Liberty just outexecuted us. We had a hard time stopping those two tailbacks, Barnes and Gado, both are excellent football players. We couldn't stop
