Time finally ran out on the Salina Liberty.
Faced with one play to win and no time on the clock for the second straight week, the Liberty came up empty Sunday when the Southwest Kansas Storm got the stop to claim the National Arena League championship, 42-38, at Dodge City’s United Wireless Arena.
The top-seeded Storm (11-1), who celebrated their first championship in franchise history, took the lead on a 2-yard Trae Self-to-Mason Pierce touchdown pass with two seconds on the clock. But an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty tacked on to a nice kickoff return by Kavon Samuels, gave Salina one untimed down at the Southwest 9-yard line.
Tyrie Adams’ pass to the right front of the end zone was knocked down by the Storm defense, preventing the Liberty from claiming yet another miraculous comeback victory. Last week, Adams completed a 35-yard touchdown pass to Ed Smith with no time on the clock for a 43-41 semifinal victory at Pueblo.
The fourth-seeded Liberty, who finished with an 8-5 record, came back from a double-digit third-quarter deficit to lead 38-35 with 8:12 left on Tracy Brooks’ 1-yard touchdown run and two-point conversion. That came after Salina’s defense came up with its first stop of the game early in the fourth quarter, trailing 35-30.
Salina turned Southwest Kansas over on downs again after the go-ahead touchdown, taking over at their own 5-yard line with 5:49 left following a missed Storm field goal. With 1:20 on the clock, the Liberty faced third down at the Southwest 19, but back-to-back false start penalties forced them to try a long field goal.
Southwest Kansas, with 1:16 left and no timeouts, drove 45 yards in seven plays to win it. On second down, Self spiked the ball at the seven-second mark, setting up the winner to Pierce in the left side of the end zone.
It was the third touchdown of the game for Pierce, who also scored on runs of 8 yards in the second quarter and 2 yards to give Southwest Kansas the biggest lead by either team, 35-23, with 5:50 left in the third.
Salina led 23-21 at halftime on Gabriel Reed’s 24-yard field goal as time expired. But Southwest Kansas received the second-half kickoff and took the lead on a 1-yard Jaden touchdown run and then got the first defensive stop by either team when Timothy Shannon forced an Ed Smith fumble and Shaquez Bond recovered.
That set up Pierce’s touchdown for a 12-point Storm lead. But Salina answered with a 6-yard Adams-to-Samuels score, followed by a fourth-down pass breakup by Neriyan Brown that gave the Liberty the ball back.
For the Liberty, Adams completed two touchdown passes for Samuels and ran for another score, while Brooks found the end zone twice. In addition to Pierce, Self had one touchdown pass and ran for another with Sutton providing the other two scores.
The Storm also got a big game from wide receiver Demarius Washington, who was a key player on the Liberty’s 2022 Champions Indoor Football championship team in 2022.
It was the first year in the NAL for both Salina and Southwest Kansas, which won the regular-season title with a 9-1 record. The Storm completed a three-game sweep of the Liberty after also prevailing, 27-26, on April 25 in Salina and 55-41 in Dodge City on May 9.
Salina reached the finals by beating the Colorado Spartans at home in the first round of the playoffs and then edging the Pueblo Punishers on the road in the semis. Southwest Kansas, which received a first-round bye, knocked off the Omaha Beef at home last week in its semifinal.
