Liberty struggles offensively in loss to Hawaii school — PHOTOS

Offense was hard to come by in the first half between Liberty and Mililani (Hawaii) on Saturday night, and any extra possession could be the difference in the game.

Unfortunately for Liberty, a special teams miscue gave Mililani the break it needed.

With over two minutes before halftime, a snap on a Liberty punt went out the back of the end zone for a safety, and the Trojans struck five plays later on a 21-yard touchdown pass to take a six-point halftime lead.

Liberty couldn’t manage enough offense to overcome the deficit, and Mililani pulled away in the second half for a 26-9 win in the Ninth Island Classic at Liberty.

“The turning point was that safety on the snap over the punter’s head,” Liberty coach Rich Muraco said. “There was a short kickoff that had a good return, a short field, and they scored. That took a lot of momentum going right into halftime, so that hurt.”

Mililani (3-0), the Hawaii Open Division runner-up from last season, put the game out of reach with a 22-yard field goal, a 40-yard interception return for a touchdown from Mason Faoa and a 5-yard touchdown run from Jonah Tagafau-Tavui that put the Trojans ahead 26-3 midway through the fourth quarter.

“In the first half we played really well defensively, we got a couple of guys cleared that were out in the first week, and it made a big difference,” Muraco said. “We had the field position battle won the entire first quarter, we just weren’t able to capitalize on offense.”

Liberty (0-2) couldn’t score after starting at Mililani’s 45-yard line on each of its first two drives. After a scoreless first quarter, the Patriots got on the scoreboard on their third possession. They started on Mililani’s 40 and drove to the 20, but couldn’t get any closer.

Liberty settled for a 37-yard field goal from Colton Friedman to take a 3-0 lead with 8:30 left in the second quarter.

After a three-and-out, Liberty lined up to punt, but the snap sailed out of the end zone for the safety. Lehiwa Kahana-Travis returned the ensuing kickoff to Liberty’s 37-yard line. Five plays later, quarterback Kekoa Koong hit Jaedon Pablo for a 12-yard touchdown pass that gave the Trojans a 9-3 halftime lead.

Quarterback injury

Liberty quarterback Elijah Espinoza completed 10 of 17 passes for 64 yards in the first half but suffered a finger injury in the second quarter. Muraco said Espinoza tried to go but had trouble gripping the ball as he began to prepare for the second half.

“We were only down 9-3 at halftime, and I told the guys, ‘Hey, we’re fine. We get the ball to start the third quarter, and if we drive and score, we’re up 10-9,’” Muraco said. “That was the plan at halftime, we made a few adjustments, and then unfortunately we didn’t know (Espinoza) wasn’t going to go until right before kickoff.”

Backup quarterback Troy Kan played the second half under center for Liberty. He completed 3 of 8 passes for 73 yards and the interception by Faoa. Kan added a 38-yard touchdown pass to Giovanni Criss late in the fourth quarter that the senior wide receiver grabbed after it bounced off a Mililani defender.

Liberty managed just 176 yards of offense. Tagafau-Tavui led Mililani with 98 rushing yards

“(Defensively), it was a big improvement from Week 1,” Muraco said. “We got a few players back from injury, so it was very encouraging with how they played. They fought hard all the way to the end and didn’t give up a lot of big plays, which is what happened last week (in a 41-26 loss to Utah 6A power Skyridge). We just did no favor (for our defense) offensively tonight.”

Preparing for Gorman

Liberty’s challenging out-of-state schedule continues Friday at defending California Division I-AA state champion Mission Viejo. The Patriots have continued to fill their nonleague schedule with out-of-state teams to get ready for the challenge of facing Bishop Gorman.

“It’s about learning how to execute in all phases of the game without mistakes, and unfortunately, these first two games, we haven’t been able to do that,” Muraco said. “Hopefully we see better progress next week. I don’t take on these teams to get easy wins, and I want to be challenged and I want kids to overcome adversity. You want to win every game, but there’s a bigger picture of things in place early in the season.”

Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.