Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

high school football:

Liberty shuts out Spring Valley

Liberty Football

Leila Navidi

Liberty High School varsity coach Rich Muraco speaks to players during football practice at Liberty High School in Henderson Thursday, August 4, 2011.

Prep Sports Now

Big games in Henderson this week

Las Vegas Sun sports reporters Ray Brewer and Case Keefer are back for another high school football discussion. They look at all the matchups this week and spend extra time on the Southeast, which begins league play this week.

Team Pages

The lasting image of Liberty’s 57-0 victory over Spring Valley Friday night may have come on the first play from scrimmage.

That’s when Patriots senior cornerback Dustin Kaanaana raced into the end zone after a 30-yard interception return.

“We focused a lot on defense the last couple weeks,” Liberty coach Rich Muraco said. “It’s hard to say if we improved, but we’ll see.”

Kaanaana came up with the ball on an attempted sweep pass by the Grizzlies. There was no tricking Liberty on this night.

Niko Kapeli ran for more than 100 yards and Kai Nacua threw for more than 200. Everything the Patriots tried seemed to work.

It was the kind of focused effort Muraco liked to see with a large, looming showdown with neighborhood rival Silverado on deck next week.

“It’s our biggest rival by far,” Muraco said. “We might not be their biggest rival, but for us, that’s the game we think about. So many kids from Liberty and Silverado went to school together. They talk a lot of smack to each other, good-natured of course, but they want to beat each other.”

Case Keefer can be reached at 948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.

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