Liberty Christian left little doubt who the best team in Class 3 was Saturday afternoon with a dominant performance against a Kettle Run Cougars team that is playing bridesmaid for a second time in three seasons.

It could not have been a worse start for the Cougars. The very first offensive play of the day for Liberty went for a 53-yard touchdown. That was the start of a first quarter to forget for the Cougars. Jacob Mulhern threw three first quarter interceptions! By the time the first quarter came to an end you felt like this one was over with Liberty up 21-6.

The lone Kettle Run score came on a 17-yard pass from Mulhernto Colton Lubbe but the PAT was blocked.

By the time we got to half, this one was over, the Bulldogs had a 35-6 lead. The defense of Liberty swarmed to the Cougars offense. That Cougars offense managed just 28 yards rushing! The Cougars in a hole early had no option but to throw more than run and of course that was a dangerous proposition considering the three turnovers in the first quarter.

The Liberty offense had a rhythm that could not be stopped, led by the Gatorade Player of the Year from Virginia and of course Clemson commit, Gideon Davidson. Gideon had a big role in that offensive rhythm with four touchdowns on the day. His first of 4 touchdowns came in the first quarter and he he added two more touchdown runs including an 83-yard journey that saw him go untouched. Davidson also had a touchdown catch.

By the end of the game, Gideon Davidson had 195 yards of offense with 181 of those yards in the run game off of 24 carries.

It was an impressive showing to say the least from Liberty Christian. Meanwhile, the finish was a disappointing one in an otherwise season for Kettle Run, which concluded 14-1 overall.

The aforementioned Gideon Davidson had 4 TD's by the end of this contest with 24 carries for 181 yards & 3 touchdowns on the ground. He was an absolute beast in the ground game and had one catch for 14 yards and with that, a touchdown.

Tyler Jackson, the Bulldogs quarterback had a good game with 114 yards and 2 TD passes while completing 6 of 9 passes. That is an average of 19 yards per pass and that passing game brought balance to an offense that was heavy on the run.

Justis Belford had three interceptions in this game as he was a nightmare for the Cougar passing game.

For Kettle Run, despite 4 interceptions and 3 sacks Jacob Mulhern completed 20 of 33 passes for 168 yards but only had 1 touchdown to show for.

Colton Lubbe had 6 catches off Mulhern and had 61 yards receiving while scoring the lone touchdown of the day for the Cougars. Colton also had 7 touchdowns as he did his best on both sides of the ball to rally the troops.

Then there is Colton Quaker who had the lone sack on Liberty Christian's Tyler Jackson in addition to 8 tackles to lead the Cougars on defense.

This was the 6th time this season that Liberty held an opponent to single digits.

Six points was the fewest for Kettle Run since being shutout by Louisa in 2019.

Ironically enough 42 points is the most the Kettle Run defense has allowed since losing two years ago in the Class 4 Final to Dinwiddie when they gave up 65.

Liberty Christian is now 2-1 in VHSL State Championship games.

Kettle Run is now 0-2 in state championship games.