Correspondent file photo / Michael G. Taylor Liberty’s Dwayne Moody tries to avoid a Newton Falls defender earlier this season. Moody has been one of the go-to guys for the Leopards this year as they look to break into the playoffs after an 0-4 start.

At the beginning of the year, things were looking down for Liberty.

The Leopards dropped their first four contests, the closest being a 21-8 loss to Lakeview. A bye week after their fourth loss, that was supposed to be a league matchup with Crestview, served as somewhat of a wakeup call for the team.

Since that week off, the Leopards have won four straight contests, highlighted by a 35-34 comeback victory over Champion, to go into the final week of the regular season at 4-4.

Those first few weeks weren’t easy, but Liberty held together and the team has proven to be stronger for it.

“I’ll be honest, I mean, we were hanging on by thread there,” Liberty coach Joe Simon said. “But all we needed was a thread, something to cling to. This group of kids wasn’t ready to just give up. This group of coaches wasn’t ready to give up. We had high hopes for the season and we weren’t just going to say ‘the heck with it,’ just because we started off 0-4.

“We kept pushing and kept pushing, things started getting a little bit better and a little bit better. Before you know it, we won four straight and now we’re going into our last game with the chance to secure a playoff berth.”

The last obstacle in securing a playoff bid however is one of the toughest games on their schedule.

Liberty takes on Garfield to close out the season. The G-Men sit at 7-2 on the year and are not shy about piling on the points. Garfield has been held under 30 points just three times this season, and has averaged 37.5 points per game.

But the Leopards have no shortage of weapons either. With Chris Cunningham, quarterback/tight end combo Derek DeMattia, John Lard, Dwayne Moody and spell quarterback

Tyson Lawrence-Watson, teams have a lot to look out for while taking on Liberty.

“They’re doing a nice job,” Garfield coach Mike Moser said about the Leopards. “They’re well-coached just like last year, they’re getting better every week, and they’ve got some dangerous weapons.”

It’s been said time and time again, but Garfield’s offense poses unique challenges for teams. Last week, Brookfield’s coach Randy Clark mentioned how you prepare for their style of offense only one week a year. Simon echoed that sentiment, adding one of the other challenges of preparing for a team like the G-Men.

That being said, he’s not using that as an excuse for the defense to be lax.

“The hardest thing to do is to replicate it in practice,” Simon said. “When you have a scout team, and they play against your starters, most of them are freshmen and sophomores, so trying to get them to replicate that offense is almost impossible. It’d be hard to do with juniors seniors, let alone with young kids. … It’s smart to run an offense that no one knows how to run because it makes life difficult during preparation.

“At this point in the season they understand to be in their area, know their responsibility on defense, because if you try and do something out of your realm, then you’re going to get beat. Whether it’s this offense or another offense. Coaches are going to find the hole in your defense if there is one. We’ve done a much better job over the last few weeks of making sure that there aren’t any holes. We’ve given up some points here and there, early in the season especially. We had our struggles, but we’ve come a long way. And I feel like we’re playing some of our best football.”

The two-loss G-Men are looking to get back on track after last week’s loss to Brookfield. Going into the regular season finale, Garfield wants to clean some things up.

“We did some uncharacteristic things last week,” Moser said. “You can’t do those things when you’re playing good teams. We had some penalties that took us out of some, some good positive plays, and we weren’t able to hold on to the ball the way we usually do. Our keys are always the same with us. We have to control the ball, control the clock, and play our style.”

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Garrettsville’s JAG Field.