Correspondent photo / David Dermer Liberty’s Dawaun Moody (1) is tackled by Garfield’s Chace Snyder during the first half of their game, Friday night at Liberty High School.

LIBERTY — Liberty needed to beat Garrettsville Garfield on Friday to retain a realistic chance of grabbing at least a share of the Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference (MVAC) Grey Tier title this season.

But a thrilling comeback was in order, as Garfield erased a 34-14 deficit to beat Liberty 35-34 at Leopard Stadium, keeping a nearly three-year conference win streak intact.

“I haven’t had a chance to really comprehend what happened,” Garfield head coach Mike Moser said. “But I’m super proud of our guys for hanging in there. … There was no miracle speech or anything like that. We just talked about staying in the fight and the power of belief that we could figure something out.”

The Leopards, whose offensive identity revolves around their rushing attack, proved why on the second play from scrimmage Friday.

Dyionn Tutwiler took his first handoff from Dawaun Moody of the night, and despite a defender grabbing hold of his jersey in the backfield, Tutwiler shook off the tackle, found the edge and raced down the Garfield sideline for the 58-yard touchdown just 18 seconds into the game.

After gaining just 2 yards on their first three plays, the G-Men attempted to punt, but Xavier McDougald blocked Ryder Cain’s kick, allowing the Leopards to take over at Garfield’s 13-yard line.

Like his backfield duo, Moody made the most of his first carry; taking the snap, Moody bounced it to the outside and went untouched into the end zone. The 13-yard rushing touchdown, as well as Helaman Garcia’s extra point, gave Liberty a 14-0 lead 96 seconds into the game.

On the next drive, Garfield forced a fumble from Tutwiler while he was fighting for extra yards.

Over the course of 10 plays and nearly six minutes, the G-Men methodically advanced down the field. An offside penalty by Liberty before fourth-and-3 also aided the drive, which Garfield finished with a short-yardage rushing touchdown.

Tutwiler redeemed himself soon after, as the back took another handoff to his left and found a crease, which he took 41 yards for the touchdown with 25 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

Both teams’ next offensive possession stalled inside their opponent’s red zone; Garfield was stopped on fourth down at Liberty’s 6-yard line, while the Leopards, after a 50-yard Moody run to open the drive, turned the ball over on downs at the G-Men’s 13.

After taking a 21-6 lead into halftime, Liberty stopped Garfield on fourth down to open the second half. Moody, on the first play back on offense, then scrambled and made a few defenders miss during a 58-yard run to pay dirt.

Garfield responded moments later, when Jack Neikirk found Brandyn Bogucki streaking down the sideline for a 55-yard touchdown.

The G-Men’s next drive, though, ended in disaster; a shotgun snap went unreceived, setting off a mad dash for the ball. Tutwiler tried to scoop and score but instead inadvertently flung the ball forward more than 15 yards and into the end zone, where Moody eventually recovered it for the defensive touchdown.

With 24 seconds remaining in the third quarter, Garfield cut the lead back to 14 with a 4-yard Cain rushing touchdown.

Liberty seemingly iced the game with an 8-yard touchdown by Moody, which would have put the Leopards up by three scores with less than eight minutes to go, but a penalty negated the score and ultimately resulted in a turnover on downs.

“The bottom line is, when you get inside the red zone, you got to score points. And we did that three times, and we didn’t get any points of it,” Liberty head coach Dom Prologo said.

The G-Men then cruised down the field, picking up large chunks of yards through the air, including with a hook-and-ladder, before punching the ball into the end zone on fourth-and-goal with 2:53 to go. A two-point try was successful to make it 34-28.

Although it allowed a big Moody run early in the drive, the Garfield defense eventually held strong, as a third-down Moody pass to Tutwiler proved to be too much and fell incomplete. Moody then punted the ball into the end zone, setting up a potential 80-yard, game-winning Garfield drive in under 90 seconds.

Much like its penultimate drive, Garfield moved closer and closer to the goal line with downfield passes. But with only one timeout and the clock working against them, the G-Men’s dreams of a comeback seemed almost impossible.

However, on potentially the final play of the game, a 26-yard pass found its mark in Bogucki, who beat his man one-on-one, caught the ball inside the 5-yard line and scored to tie the game with 1.7 seconds to go.

Hannah Timmons, who had already missed earlier in the night, became one of Garfield’s heroes by converting the game-winning extra point, which sent the Garfield faithful into a frenzy.

Moody, who fielded the squibbed kickoff, was brought down near the sideline as time expired.

Garfield (6-1, 4-0 in MVAC Grey) extended its conference winning streak to 19 and remains on a collision course with the Crestview to likely decide the league champion.

Liberty hosts LaBrae next week, while Garfield visits Newton Falls.