{"id":8147,"date":"2025-08-31T07:14:32","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T11:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.libertystudentnews.com\/?p=8147"},"modified":"2025-08-31T07:14:32","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T11:14:32","slug":"liberty-football-opens-the-2025-football-season-with-win-against-maine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.libertystudentnews.com\/?p=8147","title":{"rendered":"Liberty Football opens the 2025 football season with win against Maine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Liberty lived up to its reputation as a fourth-quarter team, pulling away late for a 28-7 victory over Maine in Saturday&rsquo;s season opener at Williams Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>The Flames were held to just one score in the first half and went into the locker room tied 7-7, but exploded for 21 unanswered points in the final 15 minutes. Liberty outgained the Black Bears 133&ndash;77 in the fourth quarter, a continuation of the late-game dominance Head Coach Jamey Chadwell has emphasized since arriving in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Quarterback Ethan Vasko, a Coastal Carolina transfer, delivered in his debut, throwing for 197 yards and three touchdowns on 19-of-33 passing while adding 63 rushing yards and a score. Georgia Tech transfer Evan Dickens celebrated his birthday with a 24-yard touchdown catch to spark the fourth-quarter run, while Reese Smith hauled in six receptions for 46 yards, including a nine-yard TD just before halftime.<\/p>\n<p>Defensively, Liberty allowed only one big play&mdash;a 77-yard touchdown run in the second quarter&mdash;but otherwise stifled Maine. The Flames forced two turnovers, including a CJ Bazile Jr. sack and fumble recovery, and an interception by Amarian Williams. Bazile and linebacker Aidan Vaughan each finished with six tackles to lead the defense.<\/p>\n<p>With the win, Liberty extended its identity as a program that thrives late, once again proving its strength in the closing stages.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/blzCIBqmn-I\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p> \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/wset.com\/sports\/college-sports\/liberty-opens-the-2025-football-season-with-win-against-maine\" target=\"_blank\">WSET reports &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Liberty lived up to its reputation as a fourth-quarter team, pulling away late for a 28-7 victory over Maine in Saturday&rsquo;s season open&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.libertystudentnews.com\/?p=8147\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Liberty Football opens the 2025 football season with win against Maine<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[624],"class_list":["post-8147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-liberty-football-opens-the-2025-football-season-with-win-against-maine","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pJcR0-27p","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.libertystudentnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.libertystudentnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.libertystudentnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.libertystudentnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.libertystudentnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.libertystudentnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8148,"href":"https:\/\/www.libertystudentnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8147\/revisions\/8148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.libertystudentnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.libertystudentnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.libertystudentnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}