Saturday Night Lights
Boom, Boom, Wow — Fans and players enjoyed a fireworks display at the end of the fourth quarter Saturday, welcoming football once again to Williams Stadium.
Pageantry is what makes football, football.
A record-shattering 19,314 fans found their seats while taking in the enormous new press tower and club deck on the west side of Arthur S. Williams Stadium, were jolted by pre-game pyrotechnics and were thrilled by Sparky 2.0. Flames head coach Danny Rocco’s team were the thespians that delivered and completed the theatre with an explosive 52-14 W over the visiting Savannah State Tigers.
“I had a major role I had to play tonight, and at the end of the day we got our job done,“ Rocco said.
The Flames opened the show with fireworks of their own—an 88-yard Danny Broggin gallop that took the opening kickoff back to score. A flag would deny Broggin the points and bring the ball back to the 49-yard line. Three plays and one minute, 17 seconds later, Mike Brown danced into the end zone for an 18-yard score, replacing Broggin’s lost points. Liberty was up 7-0 and the show went on.
In the first ‘act’ alone, Liberty tallied five touchdowns, and 350 yards of total offense.
During intermission, the audience enjoyed Beethoven, Rihanna, Bill Withers, and Stevie Wonder performed by the Spirit of the Mountain Marching Band. Back to Rocco’s show.
The second ‘act’ featured rushing performances by SirChauncey Holloway and Chase Barnett each of whom finished with respective touchdowns, passing arias by Tyler Brennan who tossed a touchdown to Chris Summers and immovable defense that has been the feature of Liberty’s cast.
As the finale closed and fireworks rained and shimmered overhead, the Flames took their bows.
As each show has its own memorable numbers, so did this show have its numbers. Mike Brown throwing for 231 yards and rushing for 54, contributing four total touchdowns. Kevin Fogg registering seven punishing tackles, 2.5 for losses. Chris Summers reeling in eight balls for 132 yards. Savannah State’s number: one more punt by specialist Derek Williams, and he would have gathered more punting yards than the team had total yards.
Bravo.
BROWN is the asst. sports editor.