Hawks run past Blue Raiders

Tyler Takeda/The Madera Tribune

Liberty running back Henry Bilskey tries to fend off a defender during Friday’s win over Caruthers. Bilskey led the Hawks with 165 yards on only 12 carries.

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CARUTHERS — The Liberty Hawks football team is known throughout the Central Valley as a team that likes to run the football. It’s not a big secret. However, the Caruthers Blue Raiders found this out first hand in a 40-21 loss.

The Hawks ran 61 plays in Friday’s win and only five of those were passing plays. Ten Liberty ball carriers combined to rush for 521 yards with five different players scoring a touchdown. The Hawks averaged 9.3 yards per carry and had six rushes of 20 yards or more in the win to remain undefeated. 

“Our sweep play worked pretty well on the edge,” head coach Mike Nolte said. “I think they loaded up the box in the middle because they did a good job against our fullback play. But, our other guys got some good yards, too.”