Circleville 57, Liberty Union 35
BALTIMORE — Circleville had a big offensive night in beating Liberty Union 57-35 Friday.
Hudson Phalin threw for 359 yards and six touchdowns as he completed 20 of his 28 passes.
Drew Thornsley got it done in the rushing game as he carried it 33 times for 272 yards and two touchdowns. He also caught two touchdowns as he had three receptions for 109 yards.
Circleville finished the night with 649 yards of offense.
Touchdown passes to Jack Kline and Kole Nungester had the Tigers up 14-0 early in the first quarter. Kline added another TD in the period as Circleville led 21-14 going into the second quarter.
Thornsley had a rushing TD and receiving TD to add 14 to Circleville’s score while Liberty Union scored with 13 seconds left to make it a 35-14 game at halftime.
A TD pass to Brody Brisker and a rushing TD from Thornsley helped Circleville to a 49-28 lead after three quarters.
Circleville added one more TD pass from Phalin to Thornsley and had a two-point conversion to wrap up their scoring and the Lions added one more score in the fourth as well.
Kline ended the night with nine catches for 171 yards, Nungester had five for 59, Brisker had two for 13 and Ben Rolfe had a catch for four yards.
Phalin had 14 yards rushing on six carries and Ray Ezell carried once for four yards.
Circleville (4-5, 1-4) wraps up the season next week hosting Bloom-Carroll (7-2, 5-0). Liberty Union (2-7, 0-5) heads to Amanda-Clearcreek (5-4, 2-3).
Fairfield Union 18, Amanda-Clearcreek 13
LANCASTER — Fairfield Union held off visiting Amanda-Clearcreek Friday night for an 18-13 win.
The victory sends the Falcons to the playoffs for the first time since 2006 and secures a tie for second-place in the MSL Buckeye Division. (The winner of next week’s Logan Elm at Hamilton Township game will finish in second as well.)
Owen Ruff had all three touchdowns for the Falcons and rushed for 60 yards in the game.
The Aces had the early lead in the game when a 42-yard run from Logan Stevens keyed a drive that had Tanner Affolter scoring from four yards out.
AC had its second score in the third on a 31-yard pass from Stevens to Colton Westhoven, which had AC leading 13-12.
Trailing 18-13, the Aces were driving late in the game when they attempted a halfback pass on third down. FU’s Hunter Clark jumped in front of Westhoven, the intended receiver, for the interception and effectively sealed the win for the Falcons with less than two minutes left.
The Aces (5-4, 2-3) finished the night wth 230 yards of offense.
AC has secured a playoff spot and is hoping a win at home against Liberty Union next week will be enough to get a first-round home game.