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SAN JOSE — Liberty High School broke a 21-21 tie against Valley Christian Saturday night by scoring two touchdowns in the final 5:44 of the fourth quarter en route to a 33-21 victory in the CIF NorCal regional championship game.
Liberty’s next stop is Cerritos College in Norwalk, where the Lions will play Sierra Canyon-Chatsworth for the CIF State 1A title next Saturday at 8 p.m.
The Lions (12-1) broke the tie with an 11-play, 85-yard drive after a 98-yard punt return by Sione Vaki was called back because of an illegal block. Quarterback Jay Butterfield completed the drive with a 13-yard pass to Jerrin Easter-Williams for a 27-21 lead and what proved to be the winning points.
Liberty then clinched the game when VC quarterback Cory Taylor fumbled after being sacked by Akili Calhoun. The ball was picked up by Darrion Bartley and returned 25 yards to ice the contest.
The Lions scored the game’s final 12 points after linebacker Nicky Einess suffered a scary injury on the last play of the third quarter. He was stretched out on the turf for what seemed like forever before being loaded on a stretcher and taken to the hospital.
Liberty coach Ryan Partridge said Einess “got dinged pretty good” and probably won’t play next week. “His neck and back, he was moving all limbs,” Partridge said. “He got his bell rung pretty good.”
Partridge then told the senior linebacker “we’re going to get this for you.” Replied Einess, ‘”Please do!'”
Partridge said Einess’ response “almost made me cry.. I went back and told the team, ‘We’re going to win this for Nicky.'”
Liberty stopped a promising Valley Christian drive at the Lions’ 41, then began what proved to be the game-winning drive at the 15 after Vaki’s spectacular punt return was called back.
On the ensuing kickoff, Valley Christian was tackled on its own three, but marched to the Liberty 34. That’s when Calhoun sacked Taylor and forced the fumble that Bartley returned for the winning score.
“Our man went down and we played for him the rest of the game,” Bartley said. “All I saw was daylight in front of me. I saw Nicky in my eye. It was all for him.”
Liberty’s victory snapped a 20-game home winning streak for Valley Christian (12-3) dating back to 2015.
Taylor, VC’s junior quarterback, was total class in defeat.
“We couldn’t have asked for a better season,” Taylor said. “We fought to the end. We lose a lot of offensive linemen, but we get a lot of our defense back next year.”
The Liberty-Valley Christian matchup was one Bay Area prep fans were anticipating. The Bay Valley Athletic League (Liberty) and West Catholic Athletic League (Valley Christian) are the strongest high school football leagues in the Bay Area, and maybe all of Northern California.
The game didn’t disappoint.
Valley Christian took a quick 7-0 lead by traveling 54 yards on six plays in its opening possession. D’Von Lang, who took the opening kickoff 43 yards to give VC excellent field position on its first possession, scored on a three-yard run just 2:45 into the game.
Liberty responded quickly. Jay Butterfield threw a 75-yard pass to Adrik Lamar, and the game was tied at seven.
Liberty then scored on its next two possessions to go up 21-7. Brenden Bell ran over from the two, then Butterfield threw a seven-yard TD pass to Cody Muth.
Butterfield threw for 337 yards and three touchdowns as Liberty went over 400 yards in total offense. But he also threw an interception that set up VC’s tying touchdown in the third quarter.
Before that happened, the Warriors put together a 52-yard drive as the first half wound down. Thomas Dunham scored from six yards out to make it 21-14.
On the opening possession of the third quarter, Liberty had marched 42 yards from its on 24 to the VC 34 when Butterfield was picked off by Deven Vanderbilt. He returned the ball 52 yards to the Lions’ 36. From there Valley Christian needed seven plays to sscore, with Dunham doing to honors from the one.
Butterfield had thrown four interceptions the week before in a 42-7 loss to De La Salle, but he threw just one against VC, and Partridge absolved his quarterback of the blame.
“It was open,” Partridge said of the intercepted pass. “His arm just got hit as he threw.”
The game stayed even until 5:44 remained in the fourth quarter.
Valley Christian hadn’t allowed a team to score as many points as Liberty did all season. The Warriors gave up 30 to St. Francis last week in a one-point win, but that game went overtime.
“We knew they were explosive and quick,” Taylor said of Liberty.
The Lions wound up with a 405-251 advantage in total yards. Lamar had a big night for Liberty, catching five passes for 139 yards and the Lions’ first touchdown of the game.
Valley Christian finished with 183 yards rushing. Dunham had 80 yards in 15 carries and Isaiah McElvane rushed 17 times for 76 yards.
