The scoreboard at BASD Stadium didn’t work for the first half of the city rivalry between Liberty and Freedom last week, but you didn’t need to see the clock or score to know how this game was going to play out.

The Hurricanes high-flying offense dominated the afternoon en route to a 42-14 victory to claim the Christmas City title.

It was Liberty’s first win over Freedom since 2018 and snapped a six-game losing streak to the Patriots.

It was the most memorable win in the five year tenure of head coach Shawn Daignault and everyone on Liberty basked in the glow of the victory on a brisk afternoon postgame.

“It’s amazing,” said Daignault. “So many people have put in so much effort over the past five years to get on the right side of it. Proud of all the kids in the program and the assistant coaches that put in so much work. When I took the job, these kids were all eighth graders and we knew they had a chance to be special and they’ve lived up to every bit of it.”

Liberty quarterback Antonio Fontanez continued his record-breaking season, setting a Liberty single-game record by throwing for 382 yards in the win. He also threw four touchdowns and ran for another one to close out the day.

Liberty (7-3) led 27-7 at the break thanks to two TD throws to Jake Pukszyn for 48 and 12 yards respectively, along with a 43-yard strike to Zyaire Davis and an eight-year rushing score by Fontanez.

Freedom (5-5) made things interesting with a six-yard rushing score from Jahaire Hughes in the third quarter to cut Liberty’s lead in half, but Davis would answer with a 26-yard touchdown reception to put a dagger in Freedom’s hope.

After being on the winning side of this rivalry for so many years, Freedom head coach Jason Roeder was dejected following the one-sided result.

“It’s as bad as I remember it,” said Roeder. “It’s the worst part of sports, losing a rivalry game, and we’re obviously not happy about it. Now we need to regroup and get ready for next week.”

Both teams will see each other again this Saturday at noon in the opening round of the District 11 6A playoffs with Liberty technically being the home team.

The last time both these teams had to play in back-to-back weeks was in 2018 when the Hurricanes won the regular season finale 29-10, but then lost a week later to the Patriots 14-7. Freedom went on to win their first district championship that season.

The Pates will have a larger hill to climb this week than in 2018, as they hope to find ways to slow down Liberty’s passing attack.

On the other hand, Liberty hopes they can shake off any hangover from the win to keep their season alive in the district playoffs.

“We gotta look at the film and make some decisions on what we want to do differently or what we’ll keep the same,” said Daignault. “We have different work to do. It’s less of a grind because we’ve broken down all their films already, but a little more of evaluating what we are and some self scout stuff.”