When you can’t win the line of scrimmage in football, you’re going to have a tough time winning games. That was case in point for Liberty in last week’s 49-20 defeat to Easton at BASD Stadium.

The Hurricanes had trouble all night with Easton’s rushing attack, giving up 362 yards on the ground and too many big plays to knock off one of the EPC’s hottest teams this season.

“I told our guys at halftime if you can’t establish the line of scrimmage, you’re not going to win a lot of games and that was the story of this game,” said Liberty head coach Shawn Daignault. “They were rolling off the ball [on offense] and their line was really impressive. They have some good backs, but their line really brought the game to you.”

Dorian Thomas ran for 141 yards and three touchdowns to pace the Easton backfield and Will Day added 94 yards and a score to highlight the best backfield duo in the EPC.

Quarterback Cole Ordway also threw for 136 yards and two scores, but improvised with his legs to the tune of 102 yards on the ground.

Despite Easton’s (7-1) dominance on offense, it was a 28-20 game midway through the third quarter when Gabe Green took a screen pass 62-yards for a Liberty touchdown to give them some momentum.

The Hurricanes got an extra boost when Brayden McKinley blocked a 26-yard Easton field goal, but the momentum swung back in Easton’s favor when they forced a Liberty fumble three plays later and capitalized with a six-yard TD from Day to push the lead to 35-20.

Easton would score two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter to put the game away.

“The turnover really was the turning point,” said Daignault. “It’s 28-20 and we have the ball and we never recovered from that.”

Liberty (6-2) have now lost two straight and close out the season with two city rivalry games, starting with a showdown against Bethlehem Catholic (4-4) on Saturday night.

“Our guys give us their best effort every week,” Daignault said. “We got to figure out how to change some of these mistakes we’re making because we have two physical games left.”