For the second time this season, Whitehall kicker Andrew Deutsch had the ball in his hands, or at his feet, kicking the winning field goal in overtime, and the Zephyrs defeated the Liberty Hurricanes, 23-20, on Oct. 19 at Liberty.

“It’s very nerve-wracking. I can’t tell you the jitters I had. Everyone has jitters in moments like that, but I feel like that’s when I perform my best. Really, it’s a big team effort, and I couldn’t have done it without them,” Deutsch said. “The coaches were asking if we should move a guy over or shift the line a little bit to see if that has better protection. I was really happy with how everyone was kind of caring about what I thought was best, especially with the lineup and stuff, but everything was great. Everyone did their job, and I couldn’t have done it without them.”

Both Liberty and Whitehall had opportunities to win the game in regulation, but the Zephyrs hurt themselves with penalties, and the Hurricanes were unable to score in the last minute in Whitehall territory.

“We don’t lose in overtime,” said Whitehall wide receiver Jack Kocher (102 receiving yards), whose touchdown along with Deutsch’s extra point tied the game, 20-20, midway through the fourth quarter.

Liberty quarterback Caden Vermuelen’s pass to Jake Pukszyn (60 receiving yards) in the end zone on the Hurricanes’ first play in overtime was broken up by Whitehall’s Sebastian Orochena.

Then, on fourth-and-3, Connor McLaughlin was ready to kick a field goal when a bad snap forced James Parham to throw for a touchdown, but a Whitehall defender knocked it away.

“Our defense had their ups and downs, but at the end of the game, they stepped up, made a huge stop, and we knew we could kick a field goal to win,” said Zephyr quarterback Trey Dogmanits (145 passing yards).

Kocher scored the first touchdown of the game from Talon Dogmanits off a reverse pass after Justus Miles recovered a Liberty fumble.

“That was a play we’d been working on for awhile, and we executed it very well,” said Kocher. “Talon can throw the ball very well, so we decided to throw that at them. We’ve been working it two or three weeks now, waiting to pull it out.”

The Hurricanes responded with Gabriel Green’s 5-yard run to the end zone, but the extra point was no good.

“Their running back broke a lot of tackles, and our defense didn’t execute as well as we should have early on, though we fixed it down the line,” Kocher said.

A 24-yard pass to Jahsi Cole put Liberty ahead momentarily despite a failed 2-point conversion, but Whitehall took a 13-12 lead into halftime on a 2-yard run by Dalton Wickel (60 rushing yards), having just returned to the Zephyrs’ lineup from injury.

With 1:10 left in the third quarter, Vermuelen’s 23-yard pass to Pukszyn in the end zone regained the lead for the Hurricanes, and Vermuelen ran in for the 2-point conversion, making the score 20-13 and putting the Zephyrs on their heels.

A bad snap went over Dogmanits’s head, but the Zephyr quarterback somehow completed a pass to Braden Bashore.

“I’ll be honest, I was trying to throw it away,” Dogmanits said.

Then, on first-and-goal from the 9-yard line, Whitehall lost yardage on three penalties before tying the game on Kocher’s touchdown and Deutsch’s extra point.

“Proud of the guys for sticking to it. We had multiple penalties that should have ended our drive, which, those can’t happen if we’re gonna win next week against Northampton,” said Dogmanits. “If we want to keep our season going, which we do, we’ve got to step it up and play better.”

Vermuelen had 129 passing yards for Liberty, and Green was the Hurricanes’ top rusher with 123 yards.

Both teams enter rivalry week as Whitehall will travel to Northampton on Friday night, and Liberty will face Freedom on Saturday afternoon.