“It was a great game to watch,” Liberty coach Bryan Nixon said. “I mean our kids came out … and what a great second half. Hats off to these kids. That’s a great football program over there (at Yorba Linda) and our kids never quit and played four quarters.”
Liberty (12-2), which captured the Northern California Regional 1-AA title last year with a 35-7 win over Pittsburg at Bakersfield College, will face the Pirates (12-2) once again, only this time with the CIF State 1-A championship on the line at 4 p.m. Saturday at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo. The Patriots lost 21-16 to Gardena-Serra at that venue in last season’s state 1-AA final.
“We’ll watch film and get after it,” said Nixon on the rematch with Pittsburg. “We’re excited we get to play next week.”
On Saturday, the Patriots started off strong, moving the ball 75-yards on 10 plays on their first possession and took a 7-0 lead on a 5-yard scoring run by junior quarterback Jace Nixon.
But the Mustangs (14-1) recovered from a slow start and scored 28 points in the second quarter, capped by a 10-yard touchdown run by quarterback Reyn Beal and a two-point conversion which led to a 28-14 lead at intermission.
Liberty got things going on the ground at the start of the second half and carried the game’s momentum the rest of the way.
“(We told them to) get out of their own way,” Bryan Nixon said. “We had two turnovers that (led to) 14 points, otherwise it’s 14-14. Our kids did a great job. They never wavered, they didn’t panic, they got off the field when they had to get off the field, they answered the bell and scored touchdowns, and never gave up.”
After both teams were forced to punt, Kresean Kizzy’s return moved the ball to the Yorba Linda 37. Five plays later, Jalen Hankins scored on an 8-yard run to make it a one-possession game with 4:09 left in the third quarter.
As it turned out, Hankins was just getting warmed up.
After the Patriots tied the game on a 32-yard pass play from Nixon to Xander Chisolm, Hankins busted off a 71-yard run to set up the go-ahead score. The 5-foot-8 senior finished off a six-play, 93-yard drive with a 12-yard run to give Liberty a 35-28 lead with 3:57 to play.
“It feels great,” Hankins said. “All glory to God. He’s blessed me to be able to play this game and he blessed our team to push through that adversity and just come together as a team. It feels great and we’re just looking forward to next week.”
The Mustangs turned the ball over on downs after Beal’s desperation pass on fourth-and-21 from his own 21 fell incomplete, and the Patriots’ Mehki Delouth scored on a 21-yard touchdown run on the next play to give his team a 41-28 lead with 2:04 to play.
Hankins and Delouth combined for 338 yards rushing and three touchdowns. Hankins had a season-high 224 yards on 22 carries, with Delouth adding 114 on 10 carries.
“We just needed to come together and fix our mistakes and the game will handle itself,” Hankins said. “Just playing 100 percent and keep doing what we need to do. We needed to limit the self-made mistakes and I feel that’s what we did when we came out in the second half and executed.”
Nixon started in place of Cole O’Brien, who suffered a concussion in last week’s victory over Fresno-San Joaquin Memorial in the Central Section D-I championship game.
The 6-foot-5 junior bounced back after an inconsistent first half that included an interception by Owen Tesch that was returned to the Patriot five yard line. Nixon finished 9 of 16 passing for 175 yards and two touchdowns, including a 70-yard pass play to Kizzy that tied the game at 14-14 with 6:31 left in the first half.
“It feels really good to be able to overcome adversity like that and have all those guys step up, the whole team …” Jace Nixon said. “Our running back and linemen played crazy tonight. It was fun to watch..”
Yorba Linda responded quickly with Jason Escovar sprinting untouched up the middle for a 56 yard touchdown run to make it 20-14 just seconds later.
The Mustangs finished off their big second quarter with their fourth straight scoring drive with Beal’s touchdown run. The play was set up by a fumble by Hankins following a 21-yard gain.
“We faced a lot of adversity this year so I feel like our team knew what we needed to do,” Hankins said. “At halftime, we made the adjustments and we never lost hope.”
Beal was 7 for 12 for 123 yards in the first half, but the Liberty defense held him to just 50 yards passing in the second half and 80 yards total from scrimmage.
“That’s a good football team, I keep saying that, and our defense came out and shut them out in the second half,” Bryan Nixon said. “We got off the field, we one first and second down and got them in third-and-long. I’m just so happy with our defensive staff and our kids played their tails off.”