Preston Liebrecht's been eating his Wheaties.
In fact this past Saturday morning, he probably had two, three, four, maybe five helpings of it.
The cereal that Michael Jordan helped popularize throughout his basketball career with the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s, eventually became synonymous with such high-octane performances often coming at the best possible times.
Liebrecht ran for five touchdowns in Conference III football action Saturday afternoon as the Sacred Heart Saints blew up the Melville Cobras 36-14, advancing to round two of the post season.
"To be honest, I knew it was going to be a game like this," Liebrecht testified after the game was done.
"It's what Saints do," he chimed with a grin.
It's the first time in years the SHHS Saints have accomplished the feat of winning a playoff game.
"I think everybody knows about him," suggested Saints head coach Trent Senger."Stop him if you can."
In the previous meeting between the two Conference III schools, Yorkton escaped with a tight 14-9 win in what was said to be a defensive showdown.
In the post-season encounter, Yorkton won handily, 36-13.
Liebrecht sprung loose twice, for back-to-back touchdown runs within the games opening five minutes.
He led the Saints' offensive attack with five touchdowns, including a 40 yard rumble on the first offensive play of the game for the Saints.
He followed that up with touchdown runs of 52 yards, 51 yards, 21 yards, and five yards. Liebrecht led the Saints with 17 rushes for 247 yards to help his team to their first playoff win in over two decades.
Melville got a strong performance from wideout Carson Erbach who ran for two touchdowns to counter, the first one cut Sacred Heart's lead to 20-13.
Yorkton had a missed convert attempt, while Melville missed on a two-point attempt.Yorkton coach Trent Senger said that going into the game, he was more concerned about a pair of Melville defensive backs, whom he offered, "seem to run hard."
Senger said it was part of the Saints' game plan to use their number 30 as much as they could and that they weren't going to change anything as far as the ground attack goes.
"We're not going to change this. Yeah, we've got a few tricks," he said referring to what Liebecht's been doing as of late.
He added that everything in terms of offence has "come together" at the best possible time.
Despite a few fumbles throughout the game, Senger sees room for improvement heading into this weekend's quarter-final match.
On a kick return, coaching staff thought Liebrecht went down by contact therefore should have kept possession of the football; Liebrecht said he thought running the ball was his best option.
"It was a bad snap," he recalled. "It went over my head but I thought I should take it. I thought I was down."
"He definitely runs the ball hard every time," added SHHS quarterback Jonathan Bell, referring to his slotback/running back teammate.
"But this is the best season (we've had) in a long time.
Bell also credited coach Holinaty, whom Bell says "definitely knows what he's doing."
Bell added that despite this being the first game the team has ever played that will mean something to the playoffs later on down the road, Bell said there wasn't much in the way of fear in his mind, but added that it was more a case of nervousness.
"It wasn't so much fear," he told reporters after the win. "It's just getting your mindset right."
Sacred Heart now looks ahead to the Maple Creek Redmen after they beat the Assiniboia Rockets 28-23.
