Eagles 'clicking on all cylinders' against Delta

FINDLAY – Liberty-Benton entered Friday's game with Delta undefeated.Considering the Eagles had won all 10 regular season games by at least 33 or more points, some assumed the Eagles were untested as well.Still undefeated, L-B beat Delta 49-13.As for the untested part, that's a matter of interpretation."That's the best team we played by far," Delta coach Mike Vicars after the Panthers fell behind 49-0 before scoring two running-clock touchdowns late in the game."Just think about that, about what I said. We played (10-0, No. 1-ranked) Liberty Center."I didn't think it would be quite like this. Our schedule is tough. I thought it prepared us for this but Scott (L-B coach Scott Garlock) has a very good senior class. Their guys are so fast, so hard to get a hold of … we just couldn't catch them."Liberty-Benton used two short-field drives to go up 14-0, broke off two big runs to boost the lead to 28-0, and used two defensive stands to shut Delta out the entire first half."I was really proud of our offense and our defense. They came out and wanted to prove something," Garlock said."We were clicking on all cylinders on both sides of the ball"Liberty-Benton will hit the road for the second round of the Division V playoffs. The Eagles, 11-0 and seeded fifth in Region 18, will face No.-4 seeded Creston Norwayne (8-2) Friday.Delta, which lost some close games to strong opponents like 9-1 Fairview (36-32), 8-2 Archbold (36-30) and 8-2 Patrick Henry (21-17) ended its 2025 season at 6-5."That's a really good team. If you look at their schedule they could easily have been 9-1," Garlock said."If you watch them on tape, they are team that can keep the ball for 20 plays in a row and kill a whole quarter. That's kind of why we took the ball first. We wanted to go down and score, and always in a playoff game it's so important to get on the board first. It maybe puts a little doubt in your opponent, and at the same time gives you some confidence."Liberty-Benton quickly established a dominating presence.Seth Elchert fielded the opening kick on one bounce, weaved through traffic up the left sideline, and literally dragged three defenders an additional 10 or 15 yards to the Delta 20-yard line. Five plays later, junior quarterback Connor Barbara took it in from the 2 for the first of his four rushing touchdowns.On Delta's third snap from scrimmage, senior linebacker Zach Elchert dropped back in zone coverage on a third-and-9 play, intercepted a pass by Delta sophomore quarterback Emric Friess, and returned it to the Panthers 7.Barbara ran it in from there and, barely four minute into the game, L-B already had a 14-0 lead.L-B made it 21-0 before the end of the period when Barbara hit Reid Irwin for 10 yards, Seth Elchert for 24, then faked a handoff, took off around right end, got a sealing block on the edge from Karson Griffin and raced 44 yards for a score.Barbara, who would complete 14-of-18 passes for 175 yards, then hooked up with Griffin on a 40-yard TD strike in the first minute of the second quarter.Will Granger's defensive stop created a change of possession that resulted in Barbara's fourth TD, this one on a 24-yard run. Zach Elchert batted away a third-down pass to force another Delta punt. Shanked, it went just 5 yards and Barbara's 12-yard pass to Seth Elchert capped another short drive that would make it 42-0 at the half."Our defense played really well," Garlock said. "If you want to go far in the playoffs, you better have a good defense, and tonight our guys showed they are pretty good."There's a reason for that."We pretty much have a chip on our shoulders because everybody says we don't play much competition," said CJ Barbara, a senior defensive end who this year had 60 tackles, 18 tackles for loss and 12 sacks in being named both the Defensive Lineman of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in all-league voting by BVC coaches."We stay sharp all the time, because we are all playing for each other."Zach Elchert would add a 25-yard scoring burst in the third quarter. The senior running back/linebacker, a two-way first-team all-Blanchard Valley Conference standout for the Eagles, was injured later in the game, though, and carted off.Marcus Nagel, a sophomore running back who had 116 yards on 21 carries, scored on 1- and 14-yard runs for the Panthers (6-5).Whenever it came down to mano a mano battles in the trenches or on the perimeter, L-B had mucho mas."We have a pretty good offensive line, and they made our offensive line look silly tonight," Vicars said."They were dominant. They probably would have had to play down some for us to have a chance and they didn't. They played really well."We thought in Region 18 we could compete. We just didn't want to play either of the Libertys (-Benton, Center) and we got one of them." Delta 0 0 6 7—13L-Benton 21 21 7 0—49 First QuarterL-B – C. Barbara 1 run (Colina kick)L-B – C. Barbara 7 run (Colina kick)L-B – C. Barbara 44 run (Colina kick) Second QuarterL-B – Giffin 40 pass from C. Barbara (Colina kick)L-B – C. Barbara 24 run (Colina kick)L-B – S. Elchert 12 pass from C. Barbara (Colina kick) Third QuarterL-B – Z. Elchert 25 run (Colina kick)DEL – Nagel 1 run (kick blocked) Fourth QuarterDEL – Nagel 14 run (York kick) L-B DELFirst Downs 16 11Rushes-yards 37-281 16-158Passing Yards 176 12Comp-Att-Int 15-19-0 2-7-1Punts-Avg. 2-37.5 4-23.5Fumbles-Lost 0-0 1-0Penalties-Yards 1-6 3-25INDIVIDUAL STATISTICSRUSHING – Liberty-Benton, C. Barbara 6-90, Z. Elchert 5-72. Delta, Nagel 21-116.PASSING – Liberty-Benton, C. Barbara 14-18-0, 175 yards. Delta. Friess 2-7-1, 12 yards.RECEIVING – Liberty-Benton, S. Elchert 5-47, Irwin 4-48, Griffin 3-57. Delta. Lintermoot 1-11.