Christian Jarmark is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover ALA Queen Creek High School for AZPreps365.com

For only the second time in school history ALA Queen Creek has started with four straight defeats.

The Patriots took on Liberty in a 6A non-region battle Friday night on the road that saw them fall, 48-7 to the defending Open state champion.

Last year's Open semifinal berth seems like a long time ago.

 “Our mentality’s not there," ALA Queen Creek quarterback and captain Britton DeWitt said. "That’s why we keep losing these games. It’s just the need to win and we haven't shown it.”

The quarterback was also visibly emotional after the game, even tearing and choking up, seeing his team drop to 0-4 for the first time since 2017. 

Dewitt did struggle to throw the ball, going 14 of 35 for 176 yards and a late interception in the Patriots only red zone trip of the night.

However, ALA Queen Creek head coach Rich Edwards did not put the blame on his quarterback or any one player in particular.

 “We got a lot of things to clean up, we got a lot," he said. "We got to coach better. We got to coach better.” 

He deflected much of the blame on himself and his coaching staff while also giving heavy praise to Liberty and its team. Specifically their defensive line that he considers to be the best in the state.

The game started off highly competitive as after just one quarter Liberty only led 7-0 after a 44 yard rushing touchdown by Lions senior running back TJ Foilefutu. The Patriots defense played arguably its best quarter of the season given the competition with multiple stops in that first quarter and only allowing the seven points.

Starting the second quarter and on, the wheels completely fell off. ALA Queen Creek would go on to give up four touchdowns in that second quarter including two huge one-play touchdown drives that were both over 85 yards. This led Liberty to lead 34-0 at halftime.

Coming out of half, Foilefutu struck again with another almost 40-yard touchdown and despite not touching the ball as much as Liberty’s other two running backs he still led the team in touchdowns. 

“My dad always always tells me to play every play like it could be your last because you don’t know when it’s going to be your last play,” said Foilefutu the Hawaii University commit when he was asked about making the most of his touches.

The Patriots would go on to score their only points of the game in the fourth quarter after a mishandled snap by Liberty in its own end zone late in the game that was recovered by junior Jayden Sanchez of ALA Queen Creek. 

This rounded out a lackluster performance for the Patriots which they hope to put behind them and move forward as they get senior wide receiver and Northern Arizona University commit Khalil Bender back next week.

Bender is seen as one of the better wide receivers in the state.

“He’s a huge difference maker. He’ll help us out a ton,” Edwards said.

At the end of the day though the Patriots are now in must win mode heading into next week aginst Salpointe (3-1).

 “We need to win like our life depends on it and we need to want to want to win like our life depends on it,” DeWitt said.