Football Preview: Liberty Lions vs. Hamilton Huskies
Two dominant signal callers in Hayden Fletcher and Rich Lucero Jr. are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Liberty Lions will be playing at home against the Hamilton Huskies at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Liberty comes in on seven and Hamilton on five.
Liberty is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Friday. They simply couldn't be stopped as they easily beat Higley 64-26. Considering the Lions have won eight contests by more than 21 points this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Liberty to victory, but perhaps none more so than Fletcher, who threw for 239 yards and four touchdowns on only 19 passes. Jayden Sanchez helped Fletcher out on the ground, rushing for 120 yards and a touchdown on only nine carries.
Liberty was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 343 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, Hamilton faced Marana in a battle between two of the state's top teams on Friday. Hamilton came out on top against Marana by a score of 31-22. Hamilton's win was all the more impressive since the Tigers were averaging only 14.55 points allowed on the season.
Jacob Brown continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, rushing for 205 yards and a touchdown while picking up 8.5 yards per carry, and also picking up 37 receiving yards. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in rushing yards. Lucero Jr. was another key player, throwing for 190 yards and three touchdowns on only 18 passes.
Liberty's victory was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 10-1. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 53.0 points per game. As for Hamilton, their win bumped their record up to 10-1.
The upcoming matchup will be a clash of competing strengths. Liberty has relied on air attacks this season and has averaged 277.4 passing yards per game. Hamilton, on the other hand, has relied on a stout run game: they average 156.9 rushing yards per game. So which strategy will prevail on Saturday? There's only one way to find out.
Liberty beat Hamilton 39-27 when the teams last played back in November of 2023. Does Liberty have another victory up their sleeve, or will Hamilton turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
