Liberty North shuts down Lee’s Summit North in 2022 high school football opener

Friday night’s season opener between Liberty North and Lee’s Summit North was supposed to be Kansas City high school football’s premiere matchup; a clash of the city’s top two programs.

Both teams took the field on a picture-perfect night at Liberty North. But from the outset, it was apparent only one team was fully present.

Liberty North, the Missouri 6A runner-up last season, cruised to a 17-7 victory that was defined as much by Lee’s Summit North’s myriad mistakes as it was the Eagles’ solid play.

The Eagles (1-0) didn’t do much offensively after Keelan Smith’s 62-yard touchdown catch in the second quarter that pushed the score to 14-0. But then again, they didn’t need to.

The Liberty North defense had two interceptions and held Lee’s Summit North at least 40 yards from the end zone until the Broncos finally scored with just over a minute left to play.

“We came out and shut them down and they started (getting frustrated) with each other. I’m just glad we did what we did,” Eagles junior linebacker Melvin Laster said. “We were just keying on everything they were doing, like (offensive line) splits and stuff.”

Most of Liberty North’s offensive punch came courtesy of junior running back MicahJo Barnett, who finished with more than 100 yards and a touchdown.

It might not have been spectacular, but it was a good first step. And first-year coach Andy Lierman, who was cradling the game ball after his first victory at Liberty North, will take it.

“I’m just really impressed with how they prepared and got ready for this game. Everybody knew it was going to be a big game, but we just tried to focus on making it the first game, not the big game that everyone wanted to make it out to be,” Lierman said. “The kids did a good job of worrying about the weeds in our garden, so to speak.”

If the Lee’s Summit North offense had a reset button, it would’ve hit it at least twice before smashing the controller in frustration. The Broncos’ first-half mistakes were mental, physical and numerous. They included: four pre-snap penalties, multiple low snaps that torpedoed plays before they had the chance to develop, at least two near-interceptions that were dropped by Liberty North defenders, one interception thrown into triple coverage and a holding call that negated a 40-yard touchdown pass.

The Broncos lost yardage on their first three possessions and didn’t have any offensive momentum until their final drive. A first-week road game against one of the state’s best teams left no place for Lee’s Summit North to hide.

“We had trouble snapping the ball early and I’m going to be honest, a couple of our sophomores were deer-in-the-headlights early,” Broncos coach Jamar Mozee said. “I didn’t know how bad it would show, but I knew it would show its head some kind of way. For our quarterbacks, it was their first time being out there. There’s going to be a learning curve.”

Despite the mistakes and short fields, the Broncos defense kept the team in the game.

“It wasn’t like we didn’t play hard. We fought. But the youth, and those bad snaps (were consequential),” Mozee said. “We can fix it. … We’ll just go from here.”

With the Missouri Class 6 district assignments released early Friday morning, the only possible rematch will be in November in the state title game.

It’s a long time between now and Thanksgiving — and both Leirman and Mozee agree that both teams have plenty of work ahead to make that rematch a reality.

This story was originally published August 26, 2022 at 10:27 PM.