Brian Crum is glad he does not have to face his own defense.

The second-year Mountain View head coach watched on Friday night as the Cougars racked up eight sacks and forced two fumbles to compensate for a lackluster offense en route to a 17-6 Class 5A football play-in victory over visiting Liberty of Hillsboro. The win sends Mountain View into the state playoffs and a first-round game next Friday.

“It was ugly,” Crum said. “Obviously, you’ll take that to move on, but I wouldn’t say we’re satisfied at all. There are some things that we need to clean up.

“Just a disjointed game,” he added. “Offensively, we never found our rhythm. Defense made the plays when they had to, a couple key turnovers on our end and on their end. … I can’t say enough about how our defense played against that offense. But offensively, we had no rhythm. We’ve got some things that we need to figure out.”

Jace Johns, Grant Lannin and Joe Hagenbach each recorded two sacks for the Cougars (8-2), who picked up their sixth straight win.

“Defense just stepped it up tonight,” said Johns, who also recovered a fumble near the end of the second quarter to set up a touchdown. “We’ve started out flat the last few games. We only let up one touchdown in the beginning (against Liberty). After that, we just totally shut them out and didn’t let any more big plays up.”

The Falcons (5-5), ranked No. 20 in 5A, jumped to a 6-0 lead on their first play from scrimmage thanks to some trickery. After Mountain View fumbled on its first drive, Liberty’s Devin Kaneshiro took a handoff to the right side of the field. He then pulled up to pass and found Levi Posen streaking downfield for a 38-yard touchdown.

But on the Cougars’ next possession, Cody Anthony, who was responsible for the opening-drive fumble, redeemed himself with a 49-yard run to the Liberty 10-yard line. On the ensuing play, the junior took the handoff and carried the ball into the end zone. The extra-point kick by Zach Emerson gave Mountain View a 7-6 lead, and the Cougars would not trail again.

“Cody’s a guy who has put in his time,” Crum said of Anthony, who finished with 185 yards and two touchdowns on 28 carries. “He’s a load. He’s now hitting his rhythm on offense. … Once he gets his shoulder squared, he’s hard to tackle.”

Anthony filled in for a dinged-up Keenan Springer, who Crum said could have played if absolutely necessary. But there was no need, as Anthony nearly tripled his previous season high of 69 yards rushing.

“All year, I’ve been running hard and just getting what I can,” Anthony said. “Keenan went down, and I saw it as a chance to come in and expect to do what I do: come out, run hard and just hope for the best.”

While Mountain View’s offense struggled to get things going (the Cougars lost two fumbles and threw one interception) its defense stepped up.

After a Mountain View punt pitted Liberty deep in its own territory with 2 minutes, 12 seconds left in the second quarter, Lannin sacked Falcon quarterback Mike McBride and jarred the ball loose. Johns hopped on the fumble to give the Cougars possession at the Liberty 5-yard line.

Soon after, Anthony barreled over a defender for the touchdown to put Mountain View ahead 17-6, where the score would remain.

“With our defense, I think if we get a good start, we can shut out any team,” Johns said. “We just need a strong offense and get scores early in the first quarter and finish through the fourth.”

The Cougars will gladly take the win, but Crum said there is plenty of cleaning up to do, plenty of mistakes to correct. Friday night’s victory could provide valuable insight into what Mountain View needs to do in order to keep its season alive.

“You don’t forget about it. Ever,” Crum said of the ugly-but-take-it win. “We’re happy we’re moving on. We’re happy to be in the round of 16, but we’ve got bigger plans than that. We hope we can get it figured out.”