With his heralded junior quarterback Jay Butterfield struggling all night long against the Sierra Canyon defense, Liberty coach Ryan Partridge could have chosen to be more conservative as the Lions trailed by four early in the fourth quarter in the CIF 1-A title game at Cerritos College. Instead, he put the ball back in the hands of his signal-caller, and Butterfield responded, leading Liberty on the eventual game-winning drive as the Lions posted a 19-17 win over the Trailblazers for the first state title in program history.
A 35-yard field goal attempt early in the fourth quarter could have pushed Sierra Canyon’s lead to seven points, but the miss kept hope alive and well for the Lions. Until that point, the Lions’ offense had consisted almost solely of senior running back Tyerell Sturges-Cofer, whose touchdowns runs of 72 and 31 yards were both eye-popping jaunts and kept Liberty in the game.
The game-winning drive started simply enough, with short completions to Sione Vaki and Adrik Lamar to move the sticks, but the pass which signaled that Butterfield was back to himself was not a completion. With the Trailblazers showing press man coverage for a rare occasion, so their defense could load the box and stop Sturges-Cofer, Butterfield delivered a beautiful back-shoulder fade route to Vaki down the left sideline, who went up against a Sierra Canyon defender. The pass went through Vaki’s hands and fell incomplete, but it was the kind of throw which Butterfield had made all year but had been unable to make all night.
A few plays later, facing third-and-six from his own 48-yard line, Butterfield delivered a perfect seam route to Lamar, who beat his defender in man coverage for a 41-yard gain down to the 11-yard line. On the next play, Sturges-Cofer took the ball again on an off-tackle counter play, and cruised into the end zone through a large hole this time. The extra point was blocked, leaving the Lions with a tenuous two-point lead – their first lead of the night – with 7:55 left in the game.
Sierra Canyon drove to the Liberty 37-yard line on its next drive, but on fourth-and-three, the Trailblazers tested the Lions’ run defense, which had improved considerably in the final two quarters. There was a hole for a quick second, but Vaki came flying up from his safety position to drop Brendon Gamble at the line of scrimmage and give the ball back to the Lions, with 3:35 remaining.
“Our defense picked us up, and picked me up, all night long,” Butterfield said. “They got it done all night. Also, Tyerell (Sturges-Cofer) and our offensive line just played amazing, and I just kept trusting myself to make those throws late in the game. I trusted my receivers and they trusted me to come through, and this is just a great feeling.”
Sierra Canyon forced Liberty into a third-and-six from its own 41-yard line, with 2:43 left in the game, but Butterfield delivered again in the clutch, this time drilling Lamar on a curl route for a 19-yard gain down to the Sierra Canyon 40-yard line. A few plays later, on fourth-and-three from the 33-yard line, Sturges-Cofer capped a monster performance by picking up the first down and sending Liberty into victory formation for one last snap of the ball.
“We just kept fighting, and our offensive line was doing a great job,” Sturges-Cofer said. “We were just all focused on picking up that first down at the end, so we could run out the clock and get that ‘W’.”
The game had started on the wrong foot for Sierra Canyon’s offense, as Darrion Bartley stripped sophomore quarterback Chayden Peery on the second play of the game, and the fumble was recovered by Peyton Borrelli. The Lions could not take advantage, however, and the Trailblazers went on an 88-yard scoring drive the next time they had the ball, capped by a one-yard run by Peery. Liberty wasted no time responding, however, as Sturges-Cofer broke a couple arm tackles and stayed inbounds along the right sideline for a 72-yard burst on the next play from scrimmage to tie the game at seven.
The game delayed towards the end of the first quarter when the lights went out for about 15 minutes, and both defenses played tough when the game resumed. Sierra Canyon’s EJ Gable broke loose for a 54-yard run late in the first half, but the Lions’ defense held and forced a field goal attempt, which Josh Bryan converted for a 10-7 Sierra Canyon lead at halftime.
The Trailblazers put some distance on the scoreboard early in the third quarter, when Gamble broke loose for a 22-yard scoring run and a 17-7 lead, and things looked even more bleak for Liberty on the next possession when Butterfield threw into two defenders while looking for Vaki on a post route, and the ball was intercepted by Sierra Canyon sophomore DJ Harvey.
The next possession for Sierra Canyon may have been one of the strangest, however. For some reason, the Trailblazers shifted into their double-wing offense, meant to grind the clock, but ran a fullback trap on the first play and the exchange was fumbled. Liberty’s Ethan Dumond fell on the loose ball, at the Trailblazers’ 31-yard line, and Sturges-Cofer again made Sierra Canyon pay, breaking a tackle in the backfield and then cutting through the middle of the defense for his second touchdown run of the night. The extra-point attempt went off the left crossbar, leaving Liberty trailing by four points, 17-13.
“We just kept doing what we had to do,” Sturges-Cofer said. “The run game was working, but at the same time, it was the passing game which set us up for that final touchdown to take the lead.”
Sturges-Cofer finished the night with 21 carries for 188 yards and three touchdowns, easily the Player of the Game in a huge night for the Liberty faithful. As Partridge said after the game, “Corn Country travels well,” and the Lions’ crowd was ecstatic, cheering for a program which had won its first outright league title in 53 years and never before last year had won more than nine games in a season.
“Everything has changed in the last two years,” Sturges-Cofer added. “The fans are more interactive, everyone on the team gets after it in practice, and everyone came together for one goal. At the beginning of this year, Coach (Partridge) said our goal was to win a state bowl game, so we went out every week knowing what we had to do for that to happen.”
Butterfield wound up completing 11-of-23 passes for 117 yards, with 76 of those yards coming in the fourth quarter. The defense, which played without 2017 BVAL Defensive Player of the Year Nicky Einess, who suffered a concussion during the previous week’s win over Valley Christian, was anchored by junior Mason Padilla and Vaki, not to mention the strong play up front of junior tackle Payton Zdroik. Padilla notched 14 tackles, while Vaki added 12 stops, and Zdroik made life miserable for Sierra Canyon linemen on both sides of the ball. Bartley added two sacks.
With the CIF no longer allowing non-champions from sections to advance to the bowl game series, starting in 2019, this game took on extra importance for a Liberty team which could find itself once again needing to beat De La Salle for a shot at the ultimate prize. For now, however, the Lions and the city of Brentwood – Corn Country – will enjoy this year at the top.
