The Bulldogs football team won their second consecutive road game 41-20 over the Liberty Lions in Eldersburg, MD Friday night.  Luke Harmon returned the opening kickoff 60 yards to the Liberty 30 for the first of several big plays the senior receiver/defensive back made throughout the game.  Despite great field position on their opening drive, St. Albans turned the ball over on downs then forced a Liberty punt that Harmon returned to the 50.  All he did next was take a Chase Williams screen pass from the 50, elude three Lions tacklers with quick fakes, and outrun the rest of the defense to the end zone.  Williams hit Corbet Darden for the two-point conversion and an early 8-0 lead for the Bulldogs. 

              St. Albans went to its inside running game on their next possession.  On second down from the 30 Marek Jin and George Broeksmit opened a hole on the right side for senior Alex Tilton, who broke a tackle a the 20, then outsprinted the pursuit to the end zone.  Yuhin Ong’s extra point made it 15-0 with 5 minutes left in the first quarter.  On Liberty’s next possession a swarming Bulldogs defense forced a punt from deep in Lions territory setting up the offense with another short field. 

With St. Albans threatening to the blow the game open, Liberty’s defense forced a fumble at their 5-yard line.  The Lions offense took advantage relying on the strong arm of quarterback Jack Pelliciotti and the speed of running back Tommy Nelson to march down to the St. Albans 25-yard line.  Form there Pelliciotti rifled a pass over the middle to close the gap to 15-7 with 2:15 left in the first quarter.  The score would remain that way for most of the second quarter as both defenses tightened and the teams exchanged several punts. 

Continuing a theme from their Week 1 win over Bishop Ireton, the St. Albans front seven pressured Pelliciotti relentlessly and stuffed several run plays behind the line of scrimmage.  Junior Eli Quarles and Senior Carter Steinberg anchored the middle while edge rushers Darden and Bob Gross were constantly in the Lions backfield.  Linebackers Alex Tilton, Ethan Engel, Thomas Stein, Steele Bohigian, and Jeff Davis were dominant throughout the game.  And the secondary, led by Luke and Miles Harmon, Lance Gartrell, Kevin Glenn and Jack Zamer is burnishing a reputation as a no-fly zone.  Special teams got in on the action also with Stein making several big hits on punts and kickoffs, Will Kearney making a big hit, and the punt return team forcing several hurried kicks from the Liberty punter.

              With just over two minutes remaining in the first half the Williams-Luke Harmon connection struck again with Harmon taking a 2^nd down screen pass from the 9 down the right sideline for his second touchdown of the night.  Scott Holland converted the extra point to give St. Albans a 22-7 halftime lead.

              While the Liberty marching band and color guard entertained, fans lined up for BBQ at the huge smoker outside the West end zone, and the lights came on, St. Albans used the intermission to make adjustments and refine their second half plans.  That proved to be time well spent as Luke Harmon completed his hat trick with another 50-yard catch and pass from Williams early in the third quarter.  Dual threat senior quarterback Zack Lubar then found Corbet Darden over the middle for a 12-yard score to make it 35-7 at the 5:40 mark. 

Not to be outdone by Luke, Miles Harmon closed out the third quarter with a 10-yard touchdown run to put the Bulldogs up 41-7.  Liberty returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown but the St. Albans defense continued its relentless pressure in the fourth quarter.  Liberty added a late score to make the final 41-20.  St. Albans is now 2-0 on the season heading into their home opener against St. Christopher’s (Richmond, VA) Saturday, 9/18 at 2pm on Steuart Field.