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WEST VALLEY PREPS

Lions bring one home for North Peoria

A decade later, Liberty's community roots flourish

Posted 12/8/19

Ten years ago, Liberty played its first true season of varsity football with a senior class an full AIA schedule.

Back then the Lions debuted in the 4A-II division with a 10-0 record. Liberty football was always good.

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WEST VALLEY PREPS

Lions bring one home for North Peoria

A decade later, Liberty's community roots flourish

Posted

Ten years ago, Liberty played its first true season of varsity football with a senior class an full AIA schedule.

Back then the Lions debuted in the 4A-II division with a 10-0 record. Liberty football was always good.

SInce then the program has endured only one losing season, 4-6 in 2015 when playing in the 17-team super division. Even then the team rebounded to win a share of its region title with more heralded Centennial and Scottsdale Chaparral teams.

The school grew and the program moved up through the bigger enrollment divisions, establishing itself as a contender at each step up the ladder. Yet its first state title came at the end of one of the Lions most trying regular seasons.

Entering the season with its sights set on the open division for the top eight teams in the state, only to stumble to a 6-4 record. Instead the team entered the 6A brackets as the No. 7 seed and won the whole thing.

"It starts in the offseason, goes through the summer, goes through camp and goes through the regular season. You take all the life lessons learned and all the adversity. You learn from it and grow as a football team. We grew," Liberty coach Mark Smith said. "When you grow as a football team you have a chance to do things like we did tonight. You have a chance to be special on one night and we found a way."

This group was under the gun following an opening 9-6 loss to Phoenix Brophy Prep. Nearby Mountain Ridge shocked the then 4-1 Lions 39-33 in double overtime.

The one blowout loss, 41-17 to Phoenix Pinnacle on Oct. 18, caused the team to refocus. Even the fourth loss, 36-35 to open-bound Chaparral, confirmed what Liberty was capable of.  

"It's amazing. Everybody doubted us because of the tough losses we had all year. But we were battle tested," senior wide receiver Gavin Guy said.

Along with those three narrow losses, the Lions provided two states with great theater in a 30-28 home win over Mesa Desert Ridge and a 36-33 thriller at Henderson (Nev.) Liberty. The other Liberty did not lose after that game, upsetting Las Vegas Bishop Gorman then winning its first Nevada state title.

The Peoria schooldominated the first two rounds of the 6A playoffs. But the Lions held on to a 33-30 win against Phoenix Desert Vista after leading 33-14 in the third quarter.

Two weeks later Liberty saw a 28-14 lead in the state final evaporate in the final eight minutes. 

"We like to make us hard on ourselves sometimes," senior quarterback Jonah Guevara said.

But let by their 40 seniors, Smith's team scored on the first play of overtime.

Then junior safety Zay Johnson picked off a fourth-down pass to preserve the 34-28 win.

"It means everything. I walked up through that tunnel and my eyes lit up like a little kid on Christmas. It's a dream come true, and to do it with my brothers, I couldn't ask for anything better," senior linebacker/tailback Jace Accurso said.

Smith arrived at Liberty in 2012 as the defensive coordinator after head coaching jobs at Moon Valley, Millennium and Glendale. For three years he worked with founding coach and offensive play caller Dan Filleman, until Filleman left for the Regis Jesuit job in Aurora, Colo.

Soon after starting at Liberty Smith realized how unique this young football program in North Peoria was. Liberty was more than a newer school serving upscale subdivisions.

Area businesses supported the football program with a fervor usually reserved for small towns. And a fan base developed beyond students and parents.

Granparents from Trilogy at Vistancia and retirement communities in and around Sun City often gave Lions home games a multi-generational feel.

This was Smith's first title after more than three decades as a coach. But he quickly reminded everyone that Liberty had an unusual level of support along the way.

“It’s not about one person or a couple of people. We’re a community program. Our community supports us, they back us and they love us. That’s what it’s all about. This championship in not just a Liberty football championship. It’s a Liberty culture championship. It is a North Peoria championship,” Smith said. “A lot of people are going to celebrate this besides just football. I was getting good luck texts from numbers I don’t even have in phone. I’m not even sure who I was responding to. A lot of people care and I think it’s because of the way we go about our business.”

And there were kids growing up with the program and watching their games. For example, senior center Brian Dean has been at, or played in, Liberty football games for nine years.

He was in the stands five years ago, as was linemate Temoc Sandoval, watching the Lions play in their first state title game - a 26-14 loss to rival Centennial in the 2014 game for the 5A championship.

Five years later the kids watching the program's first game at ASU's field played their final game in Liberty's red and black on the same grass. And this time they brought a trophy home to North Peoria.

"If grown up watching them in the stands. I've grown up with them. I've known all these coaches for a long time, and all these players too. From sitting in the the stands as a kid, to being to go out and play for those kids now, that's crazy," Dean said. "These 40 seniors that we have, most of us have been together since seventh or eighth grade. It's incredible to make that journey with them. One of our coaches gave us a motto. He said, 'If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." We've always been together and that's what got us here, that love and togetherness."