Liberty’s football team has had a flair for the dramatic through the first three weeks of the high school football season.
They came back to win in their opening game at Cal and looked as if they’d repeat the comeback effort in last week’s loss against Monte Vista. However, Friday night’s game against the defending CIF 4A State champion El Cerrito Gauchos may be their best one yet.
Senior quarterback Leysen Rodrigues led the Lions on an 85-yard drive with just over five minutes left and, on the last play of the game, threw a two-yard touchdown pass to fellow senior Jordan Page to lead the Lions back from a 24-point, third-quarter deficit to win 28-27.
“This is probably the craziest thing that’s happened in my playing career,” Page said about scoring the game-winning touchdown. “This is probably one of the biggest moments for our team. And I feel like out of all my three years of playing on this varsity team, that’s probably one of the most special moments I’ve had with the team, ever. That’s a huge team win.”
“This was a team effort,” Rodrigues said. “The whole team buckled down in the second half and we all came together.”
For Page, the touchdown came as a sort of redemption for his struggles in the first half. He ended the day with six catches for 94 yards and the last-second score. He struggled in the first half with tight coverage from the Gauchos’ secondary, unable to fully get open and make plays in the passing game. However, once he found his rhythm in the passing game and started making big plays, the senior wideout became a big part of the comeback. He caught a 19-yard pass on the sideline late in the third quarter that eventually set up a one-yard touchdown run by Camden Camara a few plays later that put the Lions on the board. Down 24-8 after the completed two-point conversion, he then caught a 32-yard deep ball from Rodrigues on another fourth-and-long play from the Gauchos’ 33 yard line that set up another one-yard rushing score by Camara on the following play to bring Liberty within a single possession at 27-22 with six minutes left in the game.
“We’ve got to get better on offense,” Liberty head football coach Mike Clark said. “We’ve got to take care of the ball and we’ve got to score touchdowns.
“It was just a testament to our guys that if we stick together, we start making plays and we seize that momentum and see where it goes. …Guys started making plays, contested catches, and that’s what you need in these kinds of games. Because (El Cerrito) has good athletesand they suffocated us in coverage. … I’m most proud of how they responded. They didn’t fold at halftime, they came out with some good energy and that’s what you want to see, that kind of response."
The 24-point comeback effort comes as Liberty’s offense struggled to find any sort of consistency throughout the first half. Liberty went three-and-out on three of their first four possessions. Despite the comeback effort from Rodrigues, he struggled on offense in the first half, starting the game just 1-for-6 through the air for 13 yards. He was also stripped and fumbled in the first quarter. That led to an eight-yard return for a touchdown by El Cerrito’s Keiyev Leslie, which put the Gauchos up 10-0 late in the first. El Cerrito scored first to open the game on a 19-yard field goal by Edson Campos on their opening drive midway through the first quarter.
The Lions stepped up defensively, in the second quarter, similar to how they contained California in the second half in their season opener. Although El Cerrito scored on a one-yard run following a muffed punt by the Lions midday through the third, the Lion's defense didn’t allow El Cerrito to get past midfield for a majority of the second half.
“Our defense is playing at a really high level, at a championship level,” Clark said.
The win pushes the Lions to 2-1 on the season heading into the final non-league game of the season at Amador Valley next Friday night in Pleasanton. The win also marks the fifth-straight year Liberty has opened the season 2-1 through the first three games, and may be a good sign for the Lions going forward. In the last four years that they’ve started 2-1, the Lions have made the playoffs in three of those campaigns, including the last two seasons.
“This win really is a good stepping stone,” Rodrigues said. “Just knowing what the whole team can do when we have to buckle down.”
“We’ve just got to keep climbing,” Clark said. “We take this for what it is and then we move on. Enjoy the next 24 hours and we move on.”
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