Dominant Second Half Rushes James Madison Past Liberty

The first official iteration of the Battle of the Blue Ridge goes to James Madison. The Dukes would use a dominant second half to help propel them to a final score of 31-13.

🚨 FINAL 🚨

James Madison wins the inaugural Battle of the Blue Ridge 31-13.

Dukes outscore the Flames 21-3 in the second half pic.twitter.com/S9jvVTiprn

— Jarvis Haren (@jarvisharen) September 20, 2025

Meeting for the first time since 2014, Liberty and James Madison would square off for the first time as FBS foes. After exchanging field goals on their opening drives, the game began to take shape, and it looked like it would be another close match between the two squads.

A costly mistake from Alonza Barnett and questionable play call had JMU turning the ball over in the endzone. And while no points would come from that particular play, the momentum would shift, eventually see the Flames take a quick 10-3 lead late in the second quarter.

The lead would not last long. JMU would respond quickly with a balanced drive ending in a 21-yard touchdown pass from Barnett to Landon Ellis to knot the game at 10.

Before the end of the half, Ethan Vasko would go down with an injury, and would not return to the game. Vasko had been the engine making Liberty’s offense somewhat manageable, and without him, the Flames did not have much of an answer.

A Flames drive down the field would lead to a field goal, seeing Liberty take a 13-10 lead. Once again, JMU would respond with a touchdown drive to take a 17-13 lead. A lead they would never look back on.

In the second half, the Dukes would hold Liberty to just 92 total yards, while the defensive line was flying around, seemingly always in the backfield.

The offense also clicked, racking up two crucial back-to-back touchdown drives to open up the half, which seemingly put the game out of reach. JMU’s offensive line had their way with the Flames, opening up holes for both Alonza Barnett and James Madison’s deep running back room.

It is also worth pointing out that Barnett played the entire game and there was no sign of Sluka, even in a two quarterback package. The two quarterback design played a role in the Louisville loss and had many questioning who would be the number one option moving forward.

BEST ‘BURG#GoDukes pic.twitter.com/tbe3YL2U2z

— JMU Football (@JMUFootball) September 20, 2025

In the end, the Dukes would rack up 227 yards of total rushing on 5.4 yards per carry while having 213 yards through the air. A JMU quarterback passing for more than 200 yards is no small feat, as there was a concerning trend forming that this was a statistic difficult to overcome in Chesney’s offenses.

In the end, the Dukes came out on top and the more talented and physical team won. With the exception of the interception in the end zone, there was no real momentum for Liberty in this game. And once Vasko went out, it was only a matter of time before the Dukes started to lean into their strengths.

JMU fans will be happy that the offense seemed to find a rhythm with one quarterback leading the way. The offense looked more confident in the single quarterback system and the running backs are getting the ball in space and are able to better create in those situations.

Liberty will have a lot of questions moving forward. Who will be the starter if Vasko is out for an extended period of time? C-USA is shaping up to be tougher than expected and the Flames already have a conference loss to Jacksonville State.

As for James Madison, the Dukes will return home for a pivotal match against Georgia Southern. This game will go a long way in deciding who comes out on top in the Sun Belt East, and so far in FBS, the home team has come out victorious in this series.