Hayden Fletcher, in the biggest game of his life, on a national stage, was making big throw after big throw, trying to keep pace with Texas A&M commit Husan Longstreet.
But after running 30 yards to the Corona (California) Centennial 4-yard-line with less than nine minutes to play, Peoria Liberty was hit with a personal foul. Then, Fletcher’s first mistake was intercepted by Charles Castille and returned for a touchdown.
Instead of Liberty getting within 42-39, the Lions trailed 49-32. If that wasn’t demoralizing enough, a little later, from Liberty’s 33, Cade Peterson intercepted a Fletcher sideline pass and brought that back for an easy score.
Liberty gave up a big scoring run by sophomore Braylin Drake, and entered the school record book, not in a good way, in a 63-39 loss before an overflow crowd at Liberty on Saturday night in the Honor Bowl game.
It was the most points top-ranked and defending Open State champion Liberty (3-1) ever allowed in its football history.
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