It just wasn’t Liberty’s night last Friday when they traveled to Cottingham Stadium for the District 11 6A semifinals.

With a showdown against an undefeated Easton (12-0) squad and a trip to the district finals on the line, the Hurricanes (8-4) made too many mistakes on a rain drenched night that concluded with a season-ending 38-20 defeat.

Similar to the last time Liberty visited Easton this season, the Rovers jumped out to a 17-0 lead in the first half and never looked back.

Liberty head coach Shawn Daignault knew there were too many errors to beat a team like Easton. Liberty turned the ball over three times, gave up 376 yards on the ground and allowed a backbreaking kickoff return for a score to deflate their hopes of an upset bid.

“We were sloppy from the get-go, and nothing seemed to go our way,” said Daignault. “We got a little bit in our heads there and when we finally settled in there and moved the ball, we just couldn’t sustain it.”

Easton scored the first 17 points in the second quarter, starting with a 31-yard field goal by Noah Borluca, followed by a 49-yard rushing touchdown by Trevon Tyler and a 15-yard score by Chris Martinez.

Liberty found their way into the game with a 57-yard TD reception by Zyaire Davis just before halftime and then came out of the second half with a touchdown drive, when quarterback Antonio Fontanez hit David for a 24-yard TD pass to make it 17-13 after a blocked PAT.

It looked like a similar script the Hurricanes were following of their failed comeback the last time both teams met this season with Easton prevailing 23-20, but on the ensuing Liberty kickoff, Tyler took it to the house 89 yards for a touchdown to put Easton ahead 24-13 and suck all the momentum away from Liberty.

“I think we played a really good team and we just made too many mistakes, played sloppy and lost our composure a little bit,” Daignault said.

Liberty graduates 16 seniors from this year’s squad that helped bring the program back to a standard that has been missing for a long time.

Daignault hopes the sting of defeat can continue to light a fire for this group in the offseason, as they look to keep taking steps forward.

“I think we have a really good foundation in this program and that’s not going anywhere,” he said. “We’re losing some talented seniors who are record breakers and that’s a big blow, but we also played a lot of sophomores all year and they learned from these upperclassmen. I feel good going into next year, but it’s hard to put into words what these seniors have done. They’ve been through some hard times and brought this program back to respectability. I can’t thank them enough. I’m just upset it’s over.”