Liberty held Salpointe off 34-24

October 19, 2024 by Andy Morales, AZPreps365


Liberty senior Hayden Fletcher lets the ball fly at Salpointe. (Gilbert GPop Alcaraz Photo)

Down 27-24 with roughly ten minutes left, Salpointe faced a second down situation at their own 43 but Morgan Quiri had worked his way past the Liberty defenders deep down the field and sophomore quarterback Matthew Avelar let it fly. Quiri turned in down the middle of the field but the ball was thrown to the sideline. Incomplete. The Lancers were forced to punt a few plays later and Liberty QB Hayden Fletcher marched his team 70 yards down the field for the clincher and a 34-24 final. The game came down to several plays and the Lions were fortunate to make the last.

“Super proud of our guys. I thought our guys came out and played their tails off,” Salpointe head coach Pat Ryden said. “You know, we were a couple plays away. I think it hurt us a little bit, obviously, with the injuries.”

Junior Rayce Alvarez got the nod to start the game against Liberty and Avelar entered the game with a couple of minutes left in the first half. Statistically, both athletes have similar overall yardage at around 500 yards passing and five touchdowns each but Alvarez had taken most of the snaps over the last four games. There were several other injuries that might be cause for concern down the stretch but the Lancers almost pulled the victory off regardless, but the team did not pull off the upset, which is a testament to what Liberty has been able to accomplish every week.

The Lions (6-1) are ranked No. 6 in the Open Division, a year after winning it all for their second team title since winning the 6A championship in 2019. That 2019 team was guided by head coach Mark Smith and this juggernaut is coached by Smith’s former assistant, Colin Thomas. Since 2021, Thomas has gone 38-6, more impressively, 18-2 in the last two years with only Centennial of Corona, California providing the losses. This is the team to beat in the Open Division despite the No. 6 ranking.

Fletcher, a NAU commit, had over 1,500 yards passing with 14 TDs and only three interceptions coming in but he threw a couple of picks at Salpointe with Lancer senior Richard Archuleta coming up with both. Still, Flecther started the game off hot with a 63-yard strike to junior Kamden Segall to put the Lions up 7-0 three plays into the game.

Salpointe responded with a 29-yard field goal from senior Kyah Francone to make it 7-3 with 5:13 left in the opening quarter. Sophomore Jayden Sanchez capped off an 80-yard drive, fueled by a 64-yard run from Fletcher, with a short TD run to make it 14-3 with 3:54 left.

The Lions made it 20-3 on another short run, this time by senior Dominic Lombardo, with 10:49 left in the half. The Lions attempted a two-point conversion on the score but the team was on the verge of ending the game early, especially with their defense forcing another punt to get the ball back. The Lions did experience a few snapping and exchange errors in the game and the first one proved to be costly with Salpointe junior Axel Martinez scooping up a fumble and returning it 10 yards to cut the Liberty lead down to 20-10 with 7:19 left in the half.

Archuleta came up with his first interception on the next drive but that was followed by a series of punts. Salpointe missed on a 50-yard field goal try with 1:41 left but Archuleta came up with his second interception and he stepped out of bounds at the three in an attempt to dive into the end zone for a score off the play. Senior Nathan Spivey scored on the next play and the lead was trimmed to 20-17 at the half.

A series of former Lancer standouts and champions from a variety of sports were recognized during the halftime festivities, including the undefeated 2013 Division II state championship football team led by former head coach Dennis Bene. That magic seemed to carry over to the second half with Avelar hitting Quiri from eight yards out to put the Lancers up 24-20 on the opening drive.

“First we knew it was going to be a fight,” Thomas said. “That's a really good football team and they just stayed the course. We were in control, and then we turn the ball over, and they made plays.”

It was a defensive struggle from there until Liberty regained the lead on another run from Lombardo to make it 27-24 with 11:56 remaining in the game. Lombardo scored again to give us the 34-24 final with 4:34 left.

Liberty travels to play Saguaro (1-6) next week. The Sabercats came up with their first win of the season on Friday, a 35-21 victory at Chaparral (3-4). Salpointe will visit Mountain Pointe (5-2) next Friday after the Pride struggled to beat Corona del Sol 42-37. The Aztecs are 1-6 on the season. Every game is huge from here and teams will be giving you their best.

“Super proud of our kids for battling, that's a great football team,” Ryden added. "Our kids just battled all night and the number one thing is we just got to get healthy and we got to see who is going to be able to play next week, once we figure that out, we'll be okay.”

A victory from Salpointe might have vaulted the Lancers into the Open Division and threw everything up in the air. This is what great football looks like.

“When you're trying to be an Open team, an Open champion, your schedule is going to be playing really good people every week,” Thomas added. “So no rest, so we have to answer the bell every week.”