Leopards Secure AAC Title

Friday night, our Liberty Leopards hosted the Lakeview Bulldogs in the Leopard’s final regular season game. The Leopards obtained sole ownership of the All-American Conference championship title for the second time in three years with a 41-21 win over Lakeview. The Leopards offense, being as explosive and consistent as it has been all year, found the endzone first when Lynn Bowden took it to the house on a 24 yard run to give the Leopards a 7-0 lead. The Bulldogs fought hard to match the Leopards, but failed to set up a scoring drive of their own. Early in the second quarter, Bowden continued to have his way the Lakeview defense, this time taking it in from 18 yards out to put the Leopards up 14-0. This time, the Bulldogs answered back. The Lakeview offense orchestrated their first scoring drive of the night, pushing into the endzone on a seven yard run to cut Liberty’s lead to 14-7. However, the Leopards proved yet again that they can do the same exact thing. Bowden again scored for the Leopards, this time on a 14 yard QB keeper to extend the Leopard’s lead to 20-7 before the half.

As usual, the Leopards didn’t rest. The Liberty offense put together another scoring drive to the start the second half as Brandon Rios scored his own TD with a 10 yard run to make it a 26-7 game. However, Lakeview would score their second TD of the night not even 30 seconds later as the Lakeview RB broke for a 34 yard run. The two teams continued to fight back and forth, and late in the third quarter, Bowden scored his fourth TD of the night on a short five yard keeper to give the Leopards a 33-14 lead. Bowden wasn’t finished yet, though.

Early in the fourth quarter, Bowden broke for a whopping 88 yard run to supply the Leopards with their final score of the night. Lynn Bowden finished with a massive 312 yards rushing and five TD’s on 26 carries. Brandon Rios added in his own score on the night, rushing for 83 yards and one TD on 13 carries. The Liberty Leopards finished their regular season with a spectacular 9-1 record, clinching a home playoff game this Saturday night against the visiting Gilmour Academy Lancers (8-2). Congratulations to the Leopards on a terrific season and good luck in the playoffs!