Monmouth Rides Its Offense In Record-Breaking 56-39 Shootout Win Over Liberty

Photos by Karlee Sell courtesy of Monmouth University

WEST LONG BRANCH – If you are a connoisseur of offensive football then hopefully you were one of the 4,235 happy Homecoming Day fans at sold out Kessler Stadium Saturday after Monmouth University outlasted Liberty University 56-39 in a game where numerous offensive records flew of the shelves.

Liberty is transitioning to the top level of NCAA football, Division I FBS, playing as an independent in 2018 before becoming a full FBS member, including bowl eligibility, in 2019. So, Saturday’s win definitely qualifies for a quality win for the Hawks.

With the win, Monmouth improves to 6-1 for their fastest start to the season since 2006 when they finished 10-2. In that season they captured the Northeast Conference title before falling to the University of San Diego – coached by current University of Michigan and former Forty Niners coach Jim Harbaugh – in the Gridiron Classic.

Saturday was also Monmouth’s first Big South win since the final game of the 2015 season when they defeated Garner –Webb University 23-9.

“I really haven’t thought about it in that light,” Monmouth head coach Kevin Callahan said when asked if the win had any added significance being it Liberty. “It’s still just a Big South game for us today and we needed to be 1-0 in the Big South after today.

“Where they go and what they do really wasn’t significant. But they already have ramped up their scholarships and they’re at just about the FBS maximum right now, so they’ve got more resources in that regard. Anytime you can beat Liberty with all the resources they have it’s a good thing. They’re a very talented team and well coached team.”

Freshman running back Erik Zokouri rushed for a game-high 193 yards – ninth best in Monmouth history - and two touchdowns on 18 carries while red-shirt freshman running back Pete Guerriero ran for 162 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries.

“Me and Erik talk during the week about staying patient and waiting for our blocks to develop,” Guerriero said when asked about his and Zokouri’s performance Saturday. “The linebackers were really flowing over the top so we were able to just set them up and just cut back up field and it was wide open green from there.”

Monmouth’s 364 total rushing yards ranked second in program history, behind only the 417 yards set against LaSalle in 1997.

“We’ve been running the ball fairly well most of the season if not all of the season,” Callahan said of his team rushing effort Saturday. “Then we felt there would be some opportunities for us to do that today. There were time where I thought we ran a little bit better than I thought coming in, but I knew we going to be able to run the ball. Our objective is to stay balanced in terms of run and pass but these two guys to my right (Zokouri and Guerriero) did an exceptional job as did the offensive line.”

Guerriero also scored the longest kickoff return in Monmouth history going 95 yards on the Hawks first touch of the day.

“My blockers set it up perfectly, I just hit the hole like I’m taught,” Guerriero said of his return. “It just opened up wide and I just took off from there.”

The combined 95 points the two teams put up was the most combined points in a game in the 25-year history of Monmouth football and also the most points Monmouth has scored in a Big South Conference game.

For the third time this season Monmouth scored 46 points of more and went over 600 yards of total offense for just the fifth time in program history. The Hawks put up 608 yards of total offense on Saturday on 43 plays.

“What you saw out there today was a great effort by our team,” Callahan said of the win. “We showed for much of the game just how explosive we can certainly be. There were some times I think we hit a lull and might’ve lost our focus just a little bit but the good news is we kind of refocused and re-centered ourselves in the fourth quarter and were able to win going away.”

Not to be outdone, junior wide receiver Reggie White Jr. gained the fourth-most receiving yardage in a Monmouth single-game with 187 yard receiving. White Jr. caught 10 passes including two touchdown receptions of 61 and eight yards.

“Kenji threw a great ball and it was a great call,” White Jr. said. “It was a big moment in the game and I just wanted to make a play for the team. We needed a big play and I felt that I could do it.”

With his 10-catch performance Saturday White Jr. moved past Miles Austin for third most receptions in Monmouth University program history with 153 catches.

Sophomore quarterback Kenji Bahar had an up-and-down day completing 14-of-25 passes for 244 yards and two touchdowns but also had a crucial interception and fumble on back-to-back possessions that allowed Liberty to crawl back into the game.

With Monmouth leading 49-19 and the game seemingly in hand, Bahar’s miscues led to 20 unanswered Liberty points in just under six minutes allowing Liberty to close the gap to 49-39 at the end of the third quarter.

Monmouth then went three-and-out punting the ball back to Liberty with 12:42 still left in the game and the Flames now only down by 10 points. However, the defense stepped up at this point forcing Liberty to punt after gaining only three yards.

“Obviously that was very big,” Callahan said of turning them over on downs. “If we didn’t stop them and they scored that might changed the complexion of the game. We stopped them, the offensive got the ball back and we scored.”

The score Callahan was talking about was White Jr.'s 61-yard TD reception on the first play following the Liberty punt. On first down Bahar found White Jr. on a slant over the top with White Jr. sprinting untouched into the end zone after making the catch for a 56-39 Monmouth lead.

Liberty drove to Hawks 22-yard line on their ensuing possession but on third down senior Manny Maragoto stopped running back Todd Macon for a three-yard loss. On fourth down, Liberty quarterback Stephen Calvert’s pass in the end zone was incomplete with senior cornerback Kamau Dumas defending on the play.

Monmouth’s drive then stalled at the Liberty 46 and following a 32-yard Matt White punt Liberty took over at the 14 with 3:15 left in the game. A 9-yard sack by Lowell Kelly-Gamble and Sam Pierce on first down pushed the ball back to the 5-yard line and after two incomplete passes the Flames were forced to punt out of their own end zone with the Hawks taking over on their own 49 before running out the clock.

Although the defense allowed 528 yards of total yardage to Liberty, including 408 yards and five touchdowns by Calvert, they did make some critical stops when the game was still on the line. Liberty is second in the Big South in total offense averaging 433.2 yards per game.

“We just need to refocus, I think we just got a little too far ahead of ourselves,” senior safety Mike Basile said of his defense. “In the third quarter we up by I think 30 points and I think that got to us a little bit. Once we regained focus and talked to each other about locking in, once the fourth quarter started, that’s what we did.”

The game seemed like one knockout punch after another with the longest of 14 scoring drives of the day taking only 4:25 off the clock.

Sophomore wide receiver Lonnie Moore scored on a 12-yard reverse with 45 seconds remaining in the first quarter to put the Hawks up 21-7.

After Liberty made it 21-13, Zokouri’s 35-yard TD run and Guerriero’s 41-yard score pushed the Hawks lead to 35-13 before the Flames scored again just before the half pulling to within 35-19 at the half after a failed two-point conversion attempt.

The Hawks took the second-half kickoff and drove 73 yards in six plays in only 3:01 with White Jr. out-leaping a Liberty defender and wrestling the ball away from him in the end zone for a 8-yard touchdown. With Matt Mosquera’s extra- point kick the score now stood at 42-19.

The defense then forced a turnover on downs, however, after a Liberty first down, three straight incompletions led to a Liberty punt that pinned the Hawks at their own 1-yard line.

On first down at the one, White Jr. again wrestled the ball away from a defender to get the Hawks out of a hole for a first down at the 28-yard line. A Zokouri 50-yard run placed the ball at the Liberty 4-yard line and senior Devell Jones bulled his way in from there giving the Hawks a 49-19 lead.

The Hawks go back on the road next week traveling to Charleston Southern. The Buccaneers (4-3, 1-0) are coming off a 52-27 win over Savanah State in a game where they gained 527 yards of total offense. Their one conference win is a 7-0 shutout over Presbyterian, so they can play some defense too.

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