By Ted Waddell
LIBERTY — Consistency can be a good thing, or, on the other hand, not so good.
For the Eldred Yellowjackets football team, it’s a good thing.
After defeating the home team Liberty Indians, 39-8, on Friday afternoon, the Yellowjackets remained unbeaten this season.
Eldred (3-0) scored four touchdowns in the first quarter to take a 27-0 lead. Senior quarterback Bryan Henry had a hand in three of those scores. He ran for a 1-yard TD and threw touchdown passes covering 38 yards and 60 yards to Charles Wolff.
Ian Halloran scored the other Yellowjackets’ TD on a 1-yard run.
Liberty (0-3) opened up the third quarter with an exciting play as Jovaughen Clark returned the kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown. Brandon Tompkins took it across the goal line on the two-point conversion to make it a 27-8 ball game.
But Eldred replied with two more TDs by Henry, a 12-yard run in the third quarter and a 2-yard run in the fourth quarter.
“They play hard, that’s what we wanted them to do, and that’s what they did,” Liberty Coach John Wilhelm said. “Without looking at the scoreboard, our kids came to play. The kids’ attitudes are pretty good and we’re making progress.”
Veteran Eldred Coach Frank Kean treated his brother Bernie to a win. Bernie Kean came up from Florida to watch the game.
“I told him we were playing good and he wanted to see us,” Frank Kean said. “Now he knows we’re playing good.”
Back in 1975, Frank Kean and his brothers Bernie, Cary and Kevin started coaching together at Eldred Central School before later going their separate ways.
“We’ve got a good offense line that blocks tremendously from tackle to tackle, and they really do a tremendous job of controlling the ball,” Frank Kean said. “We wear them [the opposition] down, and that helped us more than anything today.”
Henry led the Yellowjackets with 64 yards rushing on 19 carries. Halloran ran 13 times for 49 yards and Shawn Berger carried the ball nine times for 39 yards.
Henry completed 8-of-11 passes for 188 yards. Wolff caught three of those passes for 108 yards, while Brandon Startup had two receptions for 14 yards. Also catching passes for the Yellowjackets were Matt Balcom (16 yards), Berger (20 yards) and Halloran (30 yards).
Liberty quarterback Marshon Williams finished the afternoon with 142 passing yards. Other highlights for the Indians’ offense included a 28-yard run by Tompkins, a 27-yard run by Akeem Granum and a 63-yard pass from Williams to Clark.
Tompkins led the Liberty defense with 15 tackles. Nelson Saravia recorded nine tackles and a sack, Mike McLean had eight tackles, Efrain Baez made seven tackles and Jon Ramirez posted a quarterback sack.