David Ricuito is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Mountain Ridge for AZPreps365.com

Mountain Ridge entered its Friday night matchup against Liberty would be a hard-fought game.

"We know how good they are, we know where they are ranked," said Mountain Ridge head coach Doug Madoski. "There is no question that they are a great football team."

This sentiment was echoed by the players as well, everyone was aware of the 6A playoff contending football program they were facing.

"Liberty is a really, really good team," offensive lineman and team captain Alexander Doost said.

Doost explained how they couldn’t just roll over and how he was looking for some "excitement" from the Mountain Lions.

Liberty was led by quarterback Navi Bruzon, who had five touchdowns on the day, including three passing and two rushing.

The scoring opened with a deep touchdown pass from Bruzon to Jaqua Anderson midway through the first quarter. Bruzon ran in a TD during the first half as well.

Liberty would tack on a field goal at the end of the half to make it an 18-0 ballgame. 

One positive is Liberty was held under 20 first-half points this season, for the second time this season.

The Mountain Ridge defense was holding up against the explosive Liberty offense with multiple tackles for loss, three forced fumbles in the first half alone, and a strip sack by Christian Aguilar.

The Mountain Lions offense was a different story. Several drives stalled out after some early success.

In the second half, the Mountain Lions' offense started moving well downfield, but would not be able to capitalize. Liberty, on the other hand, had a lot of explosive plays against the Mountain Lions' defense.

"Obviously, they are a really good football team," Madoski said after the loss. "You know what you are getting into when you go up against teams like that. We played hard but did not come out with the result that we wanted."

The Mountain Lions were coming off three straight wins. Now they will have to look to put this one behind them and get back on track.

"The nature of the beast of football is that you have to wait seven days to play it," Madoski said. "You can’t just forget it, but you have to get ready for the next one. We don’t have time to dwell on it. We have to come together and learn from our mistakes and get ready for next week." 

The Mountain Ridge Mountain Lions are away next week against Centennial as they look to move to 5-3.