Football games are often not necessarily won by the team that makes the most good plays but can be lost by the team that makes the most costly mistakes. Unfortunately for Liberty’s football team, it found itself in the latter group in its season-opening game against Los Gatos on Friday, Sept. 3. As a result, the Lions lost 38-17.
Liberty was the better team for much of the first half and led 17-7 late in the second quarter. But with just over a minute to go in the half, the Lions lined up to punt. But the snap was low, and when the Lions punter fielded the ball with a knee already on the ground, the play was dead and the Cats had the ball on the 28 yard line. They capitalized, scoring a touchdown three plays later and went into halftime with a manageable 17-14 deficit.
Photo by Angelo Garcia Jr.
Los Gatos defeated Liberty 38-17 on Sept. 3
Photo by Angelo Garcia Jr.
Los Gatos defeated Liberty 38-17 on Sept. 3
Photo by Angelo Garcia Jr.
Los Gatos defeated Liberty 38-17 on Sept. 3
Photo by Angelo Garcia Jr.
Los Gatos defeated Liberty 38-17 on Sept. 3
Photo by Angelo Garcia Jr.
Los Gatos defeated Liberty 38-17 on Sept. 3
Photo by Angelo Garcia Jr.
Los Gatos defeated Liberty 38-17 on Sept. 3
Liberty coach Matt Hoefs had seen Los Gatos’ first game of the season, a 42-20 win over Monterey Trail. He knew that the Cats were likely to play a mistake-free game. So, following the error on the punt, when talking to the Lions at halftime, he preached the importance of not letting that mistake snowball.
“Even going into half, we said, ‘You played a great half of football. Don’t let the mistakes start to pile up because they’re not going to make them,’” Hoefs said.
Unfortunately for Liberty, the mistakes did pile up. As a result, the 17-14 halftime lead turned into a 31-17 third-quarter deficit.
Los Gatos received the second-half kickoff and tied the game with a field goal. Then, on the ensuing Lions possession, a pass from junior quarterback Nate Bell was deflected and intercepted. Two plays later, Los Gatos was in the end zone again, going up 24-17.
The Lions were forced to punt on their next possession and the play ended up being essentially an instant replay of the first botched punt attempt. Liberty’s punter dropped to a knee to field a low snap, causing the play to be whistled dead as soon as he caught the ball. The Cats again capitalized on the Lions’ miscue, scoring a touchdown to go up 31-17.
The Liberty offense couldn’t get going again. Los Gatos added a fourth-quarter touchdown for the game’s final score. The two punting miscues and the interception all gave the Cats possessions starting on the Liberty side of the field. The three touchdowns they scored on those ended up being the difference on the scoreboard.
“We preached all week that this is about as well of a coached team and program as there is out there and you can’t make these little mistakes,” Hoefs said. “We made a few. It took the momentum and swung it in their favor. I think that was the difference in the end.”
While the night didn’t end in the Lions’ favor, there were positives. Things looked bad early, when Liberty went three-and-out after receiving the opening kickoff and Los Gatos promptly opened up a 7-0 lead. But the Lions responded well, answering the touchdown immediately with one of their own when Bell found senior receiver Khiron Green for an 8-yard touchdown pass.
Junior kicker Dylan Clark nailed a 35-yard field goal to put Liberty up 10-7. Then, after the teams exchanged punts, Bell and sophomore receiver Ryan Mckendry connected on a 68-yard touchdown pass.
“I thought Nate Bell did a lot to extend plays with his legs and I thought Ryan Mckendry, for a sophomore, had a really good first impression for his first game at receiver,” Hoefs said. “He had to have 100-plus yards. He looked good. There’s a lot of bright spots.”
With the loss, the Lions are 0-1. Next up for Liberty is the Honor Bowl and a game against Campolindo. Initially, the Lions were going to take on Canyon Springs from North Las Vegas while Campolindo would have played Sutter Union earlier in the day. But on Friday morning, Sept. 3, the Honor Bowl announced on Twitter that both Canyon Springs and Sutter Union had to cancel due to “COVID and a tragic loss of life,” putting the disappointment of a loss in perspective.
With both of their opponents having to cancel, Liberty and Campolindo were quickly slotted into a game against each other. It will be played on Friday, Sept. 10 at 7:30 p.m.
“I think we kind of understand as a team now that we’ve got to take care of the little things during the week and make sure we have attention to detail with our game plans,” Hoefs said. “It translated into the second half when some attention to detail kind of slipped through the cracks.”
Another positive for Liberty in the loss to Los Gatos is just that the game was played at all. The Lions were initially set to begin their season against Bishop O’Dowd on Aug. 27 but that game was canceled due to poor air quality. So, the game against the Cats was not only Liberty’s first of the season, but — because COVID-19 forced the 2020 season to be played in the spring of 2021 — it was the school’s first football game during the traditional fall season in nearly two full years.
“Win, lose or draw, I’m happy we got this in,” Hoefs said. “All week I’ve been checking the AQI on my phone. Losing a football game isn’t the end of the world. We’ve got to pick ourselves up.”
