There was a humble confidence that permeated the Liberty Hurricanes as they celebrated a 31-14 victory with their fans over Stroudsburg on Sept. 7 at Liberty, improving the ‘Canes record to 3-0.

“It’s been a long road,” said fourth-year Liberty head coach Shawn Daignault. “It’s been a day-to-day grind for years where myself, the assistant coaches I have, a group of kids that bought into making everyday changes that we asked them to make, and it’s a lot of little things every day.”

The Hurricanes led, 10-7, at halftime and pulled away on touchdowns by three different players in the second half.

“The offensive line was blocking well and all the offseason work that we put in all came together today, and we were feeling great,” said Liberty quarterback Antonio Fontanez, who rushed for a touchdown midway through the third quarter. “We had to read the end, and whatever he did, we did the opposite. It was also great perimeter blocking by Cole Daignault and Zyaire Davis which was great all-around play as a team.”

Daignault caught a 38-yard pass from Fontanez before getting tripped up on Stroudsburg’s 30-yard line, but the Hurricanes opened the fourth quarter on a 21-yard touchdown run by Brayden McKinley.

“I was just ready to score. That’s all it was,” McKinley said. “It was a lot of physical action that had to be made. There were players on the ground. I had to hurdle some players. At the end of the day, it was good blocking by us, and that’s what created the touchdown.”

The Mountaineers responded on Ben Pilcher’s touchdown pass to Ethan Dudsak in the end zone, but

Gabriel Green’s run up the middle for a Hurricane touchdown all but ended the night with 1:09 remaining in the game.

“Our mentality was to go in there and perform to the best of our abilities,” said McKinley. “We know these guys have talent, but we have talent too, so at the end of the day, it doesn’t come down to the talent. It comes down to the mindset and mentality that we need to have to drive the football into the end zone and stop them on fourth down.”

Both teams stumbled in the first quarter and both had multiple penalties in the first half.

“It was a little sloppy that way,” said Coach Daignault. “I’m curious to watch the film to see how much of that’s controllable. It wasn’t a lot of procedural penalties or things like that. We had the one late hit out of bounds, and we deserved it.”

Stroudsburg fumbled on its opening drive, and Liberty turned the ball over on downs. A face mask penalty on the Mountaineers put the Hurricanes on the 5-yard line but Stroudsburg’s defense forced a field goal by Christian Hackett, putting the ‘Canes on the board first.

Stroudsburg jumped ahead on a Jaylin Rieara 8-yard run for a Mountaineer touchdown, and Pilcher kicked the extra point.

Fontanez’s pass to a wide open Jake Pukszyn put the Hurricanes in Mountaineer territory, and a 29-yard pass to Pukszyn for a touchdown put Liberty back in the lead.

With 1:42 remaining in the second quarter, Liberty’s Javian Pujals brought down Pilcher from behind, and Stroudsburg missed a field goal that would have tied the game at halftime.

“We went in [to halftime] fairly confident with what we were doing,” Coach Daignault said. “We left a couple opportunities out on the field that we knew we could clean up. We were getting the ball first, and it was important that we had a good drive, and we did have a good drive but ended up in an interception. Would’ve been nice to get some points there.”

The Hurricanes made up for the interception after a bad Stroudsburg punt started Liberty’s drive at midfield, resulting in Fontanez’s touchdown.

“First time we’re 3-0,” he said, “so it feels great.”