Olentangy Liberty senior Jake Struck hauls in a touchdown reception during the second quarter of Friday night’s showdown against Olentangy Orange.

An Olentangy Liberty’s Elliot Rankin dives across the goal line after recovering a fumble during the second quarter of Friday’s game at Olentangy Orange High School.

Olentangy Orange senior Zane Konczak is tackled by two Liberty defenders during Friday night’s game.

LEWIS CENTER — After suffering through a dreadful regular season a year ago that saw Olentangy Liberty lose seven games under first-year head coach John Sansbury, the Patriots finished off a quick about-face on Friday night with an emphatic 50-22 win over district rival Olentangy Orange to clinch a share of the OCC-Central title and the top seed in the Division I, Region 3 playoffs next week.

Senior quarterback Andrew Leonard threw for 271 yards and four touchdowns, including a pair to Jake Struck, to lead Liberty, and the Patriots defense forced four turnovers from dynamic Orange quarterback Levi Davis and the Pioneers offense to spark the blowout in a highly-anticipated showdown of the top-ranked teams in the region.

“This feels a lot better than last year, that’s for sure,” Sansbury said following the game. “We have really good players and a really strong senior class. This is how we should be playing.”

Davis threw for 197 yards and two touchdowns in the first half to keep Orange afloat, but was held without a completion over the final two quarters as the mistakes continued to come in waves. He was also limited to 30 yards on nine carries and was sacked twice on the night.

“We did it by really playing together,” Sansbury said of containing Davis. “It’s the defensive line and linebackers, we call it ‘caging’ or keeping him inside and not letting him get outside. And then it’s everybody running to the ball relentlessly because he can go 80 (yards) just like that. We mixed up our blitzes whether it was delayed blitzes, twists, and stunts to give him some different looks and, the best we can, keep him in the pocket.”

Liberty (8-2) led 7-3 early in the first quarter on a 3-yard touchdown run by Struck, and the Patriots never trailed again as the turnovers began to pile up in a hurry for the Orange offense.

Ryan Schapker’s recovery of a fumble by Davis near midfield gave the Liberty offense prime field position late in the first quarter, and Leonard paid it off four plays later on a perfectly thrown 25-yard touchdown pass to Christian Moulton as Liberty started to gain separation on the scoreboard with a 14-3 lead.

Davis and the Orange offense generated a quick answer on the ensuing drive to cut into the lead. A 4-yard touchdown pass from Davis to Terryn Thomas got Orange to within four points early in the second quarter, but the Pioneers never truly threatened again as defensive struggles and turnovers continued to undermine any efforts to win the game.

Liberty needed just six plays on its next drive to increase the lead back to two scores. Leonard found Struck in the end zone for a 22-yard scoring strike, one of seven catches on the night for Struck, to give the Patriots a 21-10 lead that would grow larger on the game’s next play from scrimmage.

Taking over at its own 15 and badly in need of a scoring drive, Orange put the ball on the ground once more. A scramble for the loose ball ultimately pushed the ball into the end zone where Liberty’s Elliot Rankin pounced on it for a defensive touchdown and a 28-10 Patriots lead.

Orange (8-2) temporarily stopped the bleeding on its next drive as Davis and Thomas again connected, this time for a 54-yard touchdown catch and run, but the touchdown proved inconsequential as the Liberty offense continued to fire on all cylinders.

Thomas finished with five catches for 98 yards and two touchdowns.

Leonard’s third touchdown pass of the half and second to Struck pushed the Liberty lead to 35-17 late in the half as it appeared the Patriots were on the verge of running away with the game early, but an Orange field goal in the closing seconds sent the Pioneers into halftime with some momentum and an opportunity to further cut into the lead after receiving the second half kickoff.

Any chances of Orange making a second-half push were quickly dashed, however, as the third quarter began much in the same way the previous two played out. Two plays into the opening drive of the second half, Davis sailed a pass over his receiver’s head and into the waiting arms of Liberty defensive back Antonio Kish, who returned the interception to the Orange 17.

Four plays later, Leonard rolled into the end zone from a yard out to deliver the knockout blow as Liberty began to pour it on with a 42-20 lead.

“Those were huge, and then capitalizing on them as well,” Sansbury said of the turnovers. “If we’re going to take the ball away, we have to score. Those are game-changers. Our defense was right on the ball. We’ve been preaching it all year, attacking the ball and trying to take it away. When you play really hard, good things happen.”

“We haven’t done that all year,” Orange head coach Wes Schroeder said. “That happens sometimes in football. We’ve been on the right side of those and been on the wrong side of those. It’s part of it.”

Austin Stamp’s sack of Harris in the end zone for a safety added to Liberty’s lead, and Leonard polished off his prolific performance with his fourth touchdown pass of the game on a 10-yard pass to Ben Godwin early in the third quarter to force a running clock and round out the Patriots’ dominant night.

Leonard, a three-year starter, said of the win, “It feels so rewarding that all the hard work we put in in the offseason is paying off. Especially from last year when we didn’t have the best record and lost to a lot of teams we’ve beaten this year. It just feels very good.”

While Orange entered the game guaranteed to have at least a share of the division title, Schroeder lamented his team’s sloppiness and suggested inexperience in high-stakes moments factored into his team’s inability to stay out of its own way.

“We’re a program that hasn’t been in a lot of big games, and (Liberty) has,” he said. “We always talk about the process, and it’s better that it happened now than next week. We just have to get better … This is one of the bigger games this school’s ever been in. All we can do is get better. That’s all there is to it. Make more plays and execute at a higher level.”

As for the message to his team with still plenty to play for heading into postseason play, Schroeder said, “We’re both 8-2. We’re both league champs. This is one win and it doesn’t mean anything other than that.”