It hasn’t been pretty each week, but Liberty’s football team has gotten the job done over the first month of the season.

The Hurricanes survived last week’s showdown with Northampton, coming away with a 16-7 nailbiter to remain undefeated at 4-0.

Brayden McKinley’s 74-yard interception return for a score iced the win last week as time expired. It was another instance this season of Liberty finding ways to win games. It’s opposite of what head coach Shawn Daignault and his staff have seen in their previous three years, but are happy to finally get positive results in tight contests.

“Always going to try and improve but we are finding a way to win and that’s a giant jump for us,” said Daignault. “Hard to put your thumb on anything specific but we got some dedicated players. We have a good culture and we have some kids that are willing to put the work in.”

Liberty led 10-0 at halftime thanks to a 24-yard rushing score from Gabe Green in the first quarter followed by a 28-yard field goal by Christian Hackett in the second quarter.

Unfortunately, those were all the points Liberty’s offense put up on the night. The Hurricanes were outgained by Northampton 266 yards-to-247 yards, but recorded three interceptions and recovered a fumble to help keep Northampton scoreless deep into the fourth quarter. The Kids finally got on the scoreboard when Gavin Taff threw a 28-yard touchdown to Tymir Williams to cut the lead to 10-7 with 5:04 left in the game.

Northampton (2-2) was able to hold Liberty and get the ball back and were in position to attempt a 34-yard field goal to tie the game at the end of regulation, but the Kids botched the field goal attempt and McKinley took advantage of the desperation with his interception return to keep the Hurricane train rolling.

Despite the win, Daignault wants his team to finish these type of games off sooner than later.

“We need to establish the line of scrimmage more consistently,” he said. “There were times we could and then when we couldn’t. We’re able to move the ball on the ground, but when we got to the last seven minutes of the game we couldn’t get it going.”

Liberty travels to J. Birney Crum Stadium this Friday to take on the 4-0 Dieruff Huskies in the only battle of unbeaten teams this weekend. Dieruff has won all their games against teams from the former EPC North, but Daignault isn’t taking them for granted.

“Everybody is excited about being 4-0 and that we got away with some mistakes to get to this point,” he said. “We still have a lot of work to do.”