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By Brian Pitts
Davie Enterprise Record

The Army-Liberty game on Nov. 27 was something special for the Hampton family.
On the Army side, you had Peyton Hampton, a junior linebacker/special teams player who graduated from Davie in 2019.
On the Liberty side, you had younger brother Nate Hampton, a freshman backup quarterback and a 2021 Davie graduate.
On the Army side, you had mother Lori.
On the Liberty side, you had father Ryan.
“Lori sat on the Army side and I sat on the Liberty side,” Ryan said. “Nathan got all the tickets for my family and Peyton got all the tickets for Lori’s family. We had 30-40 family members there. It was a lot of fun.”
The Hamptons had special T-shirts made for the occasion.
“I didn’t wear anything that said Army or Liberty except the T-shirt we had made up,” Ryan said. “It had their names with their numbers and the Liberty logo and the Army logo. I had two shirts made up for it.
“ESPN showed (Peyton and Nate) before the game talking. They had made some posters and ESPN showed them in the stands. They showed my youngest daughter Lauren holding it.
“Nathan invited Peyton to come over when Liberty prayed in the end zone before the game, but he couldn’t get over there because the band was on the field.”
The day belonged to the Black Knights, who used a dominating first half (24-3 at halftime) to win 31-16 on Liberty’s field.
“I was cheering both ways,” Ryan said. “I was surprised Army jumped on them like they did – 24-0 at one point. I was really surprised by that. Army is so disciplined. I guess Liberty thought they could open it up on them, but they couldn’t.”
Both teams will play in bowl games. Liberty’s regular season ended at 7-5. Army (8-3) plays Navy on Saturday before preparing for its bowl.