Football Game Preview: Liberty Red Devils vs. Strom Thurmond Rebels

Two dominant backs in Kendall Jackson and Deonte Phillips are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Liberty Red Devils will take on the Strom Thurmond Rebels at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.

Liberty is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Friday. They blew past Pelion 35-14. The high-flying offensive performance was a huge turnaround for the Red Devils considering their seven-point performance the contest before.

Tanner Elrod had an outrageously good game as he rushed for 85 yards and two touchdowns. The team also got some help courtesy of Zane Smith, who gained 90 total yards and a touchdown.

They were just one part of a punishing run game: Liberty was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 256 rushing yards. They are 7-1 when they've run for more than 200 yards.

Liberty didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Chris Mable and Lavonte Henderson.

Meanwhile, while Strom Thurmond put up plenty of points on Friday, the same can't be said for Chesterfield. The Rebels took their game with ease, bagging a 49-0 victory over the Golden Rams. Given the Rebels' advantage in MaxPreps' South Carolina football rankings (they are ranked 44th, while the Golden Rams are ranked 177th) , the win wasn't entirely unexpected.

Strom Thurmond's win came from a few key players Liberty will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Zy Rouse, who rushed for 51 yards and a pair of scores. Another player making a difference was Bri'Shaun Lee, who threw for 158 yards and two TDs while completing 80% of his passes.

Strom Thurmond pushed their record up to 9-2 with the win, which was their sixth straight at home. The home victories came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 48.2 points over those games. As for Liberty, their win bumped their record up to 8-3.