Stephen Buckshot Calvert finished 24/36 for 306 yards with two touchdowns while Maine transfer Joshua Mack finished with 95 yards on 14 carries, and Antonio Gandy-Golden continued to add to his NFL Draft stock with 6 receptions for 144 yards and a touchdown, which was significant because he passed Darrin Peterson for the all-time record in receiving touchdowns with 28.
The Liberty defense stepped up in a major way last week as they held the Lobos to 362 yards of offense, a team that averaged 482 yards prior to coming to Lynchburg. Austin Lewis and Ralfs Rusins each had 1.5 tackles for loss and .5 sacks as the defense routinely swarmed the backfield and Tevaka Tuioti could not get on track.
This was the third straight win for Liberty, the first time the Flames had a streak of at least 3 wins since 2017 (when they had two).
There is no rest for the weary though as they have one more game before a well-deserved bye week:
Liberty (3-2, FBS Independent)
vs.
New Mexico State (0-5, FBS Independent)
Liberty makes the second of two trips to the Land of Enchantment as they complete a two-year home and home series with the Aggies (NMSU travels to Lynchburg for the Flames' season finale November 30). Last year's trip to Las Cruces was a back and forth affair with the teams combining for 89 points, 1,085 yards of offense, including 767 passing yards and 6 touchdowns by quarterbacks Stephen Calvert and Josh Adkins, and while there were only two ties and one lead change, lots of excitement down to the end. Here's the matchup for this week's meeting
Matchup
Location:Aggie Memorial Stadium, Las Cruces, NM
Series: Third Meeting
Last Meeting: Liberty 28-21 (11/24/2018)
Kickoff: 8 PM (6 PM local time)
Radio: The Journey FM Radio Network/Liberty Flames Sports Network (Liberty) Alan York play-by-play; New Mexico State Radio Network/Learfield IMG College (New Mexico State) Jack Nixon play-by-play
Television: New Mexico State Sports Network/FloSports, Adam Young play-by-play
Coaches: Hugh Freeze (First season at Liberty 3-2 record) , Doug Martin (Seventh season at NMSU, 20-58 record)Last Week: Liberty d. New Mexico 17-10; NMSU lost to Fresno State 30-17
New Mexico State is winless on the year (and a regular part of ESPN's Bottom 10) and has not had an above .500 regular season since 2002 (the Aggies won the 2017 Arizona Bowl to finish 7-6). and has only scored more than 10 points once (last week vs. Fresno State) and allowed 50 or more points three times, including a season high 62 against Alabama.
On paper this looks like a romp for Liberty, but last year, NMSU came into the first game in Las Cruces at 1-4 and averaging 16.4 points per game before scoring 49 against Liberty. The Flames will need to start fast and keep one foot on the gas, and the other on the metaphorical throat of the Aggies for 60 minutes to leave with a victory and keep the good vibes going after getting a couple of key commitments for the 2020 recruiting class this week.
Im gonna go with the Flames in this one, and I hope the score isn't even this close
Liberty 38
New Mexico State 27
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