Turnovers cost the Liberty football team and a fourth-quarter rally fell short as visiting Elsinore High defeated the Bison 47-38 Friday night.
Liberty quarterback Julian Gallardo passed for 207 yards and 2 touchdowns, while Chris Debose led Liberty ballcarriers with 137 yards rushing and 2 touchdowns. But that wasn’t enough to keep Liberty’s nonleague record from falling to 1-2. The Elsinore Tigers (2-2) scored four straight touchdowns – three off turnovers – in the middle of the first half.
The Bison led 13-6 following an 80-yard touchdown run by Gavin Ramirez and had the ball again when Gallardo was intercepted by Leelan Nededog on the Bison 17-yard line. Three plays later, Lataevious Hernandez scored the first of his three touchdowns on a 15-yard run for Elsinore.
Early in the second quarter, an Elsinore recovery of a Liberty fumble led to an 18-yard TD run by Hernandez and a 20-13 Elsinore lead. Then, after Liberty fumbled the ensuing kickoff, Xavier Stankevich scored the second of his three TDs of the game on a 2-yard run.
Stankevich came back with a 4-yard touchdown moments later for a 34-13 lead.
The Tigers added more scoring on a 5-yard Hernandez run and a 6-yard Rex Berg run, and they led 47-19 entering the fourth quarter. Liberty fought back with two touchdown passes from Gallardo to Nate Levine and a TD run, but it wasn’t enough to pull out the victory.
Liberty will play at Hemet on Sept. 18.
