The battle on the gridiron at Liberty High School came down to the final four minutes of the game when the Peoria Panthers Michael Waddle made a defense play, which the Lions couldn’t recover from and were forced to punt on 4^th and 13.  Peoria was on the Lions 47-yard line and needed to cover a lot of yards in a little bit of time. But Liberty’s Hayden Pearse read the pass and picked it, ending Peoria’s chances as they fell 28-21 to Liberty.

Liberty scored early in the 1st quarter, when Tyler Rogers connected with Paul Panaccione. Liberty fumbled the ball and Peoria’s Arnold Dealejando recovered with 8:24 left in the first half. Sam Pineda caught a 59-yard pass reception from Peoria’s quarterback Nick Salute, but the Panther’s offense was unable to make the Lions pay for their mistake.

Peoria’s defense held Liberty on their next possession and despite a big sack on Salute from Liberty’s Jarred Johnston, Peoria answered back on a Darius Aguirre 27-yard reception from Salute, but missed an extra point and trailed 7-6 at the half.

Liberty came out at the start of the 3rd quarter with a big stop on Salute by Ben Kullos who put him down in the backfield. Liberty put together 14 plays and scored on a 2-yard keeper by Rogers to go ahead 14-6. Aguirre scored on their next possession and the Panther’s special teams put away the two point conversion to tie the game 14-14 with 38.4 seconds left in the 3rd quarter.

Peoria made a gutsy call at the start of the 4th quarter trying to recover on onsides kick, giving Liberty great field positioning. Rogers connected with Caleb Robinson on a 22-yard pass to set up Ryan Benedict who ran 8-yards for another Liberty touchdown going ahead 21-14. Rogers made an 11-yard run into the endzone, forcing the Panthers to score two additional times. The Lion’s defensive back Chad Bennett broke up a pass-play for Peoria, giving Liberty’s defense the confidence. But a 15-yard run by Ira Rojas made way for the Panthers to score again with 5:54 left in the game - when Salute connected with Aguirre on a 31-yard reception.

The Panthers will look to bounce back next week as they host Glendale High School, while Liberty will travel to Sunrise Mountain for a rivalry game.

 

- Jennifer Jimenez