Salina Liberty Playbook: Our Playoffs Already Started

by Cody Zeeb

Salina Liberty receiver Malik Honeycutt carries the ball against the Billings Outlaws

The Salina Liberty won a huge game in Week 11, beating the Billings Outlaws 60-41. Their path to the Arena Football One playoffs continues this week as they host the Washington Wolfpack Saturday, May 31st. Kickoff at the Tony’s Pizza Events Center is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET on EvergreenNOW. 


huge Win Over the Outlaws

The Salina Liberty showed up in a big way Saturday evening in their rematch with the Billings Outlaws. They impressed with a 60-41 victory, scoring their first points mere seconds into the game when Dezmon Epps returned the opening kickoff for six. It was on from there. Salina led 33-13 at the half and never looked back. Rakeem Cato once again balled out at quarterback, racking up five touchdown passes and almost 300 passing yards. It was the first time in 20 years of coaching that Head Coach Heron O’Neal had a double bye week. He feels the team and coaches handled it perfectly. It gave them time to rest, heal up, and reset for this final playoff push. 


Every Game is a pLAYOFF gAME 

That’s the approach the Liberty took into last week, and will continue to carry through the final three games of the season. Win each game ahead of them, and keep marching forward. Currently, they sit sixth in a tight playoff race for the final two playoff spots. Corpus (3-4) and Oregon (4-6) sit ahead of the Liberty (3-5) for that final spot. 

“You win all four and you put yourself into the playoffs” is what Coach O’Neal told his players last week. That’s the one way the team can control their own destiny and find themselves with a chance to win it all at the end. “Our playoffs already started with Billings,” Coach O’Neal told me.