A few inches, a few yards and six points. That was the difference Friday night for Liberty in a 27-21 loss to Bellevue.

The season’s most hyped game got under way a little late after a light outage delayed the game 20 minutes, but once the teams were on the field and the whistle blew it was clear the two teams were there to play hard.

Liberty (7-1 overall, 4-1 KingCo 3A/2A) was able to stop the Wolverines at its nine-yard line and force a field goal late in the fourth quarter. After that the Patriots had the ball at their own 20, with just over three minutes to play. Trailing by six points, they had a chance to win.

“What more can you ask from your kids other than a chance to win the game,” said Liberty coach Steve Valach. “We got the stop we needed and forced the field goal… I’m really proud of our guys.”

For a moment, it seemed Liberty was destined to complete the drive. Jake Bainton leapt over three Bellevue defenders and ripped down a pass for a first down. The play was so close both crowds cheered, Bellevue fans thinking they had the interception, Liberty fans thinking they had the first down. Two players later, Chandler Jenkins took a short pass from Trey Wheeler and slipped two defenders to move ten yards.

But then the drive ended just as abruptly. Bellevue’s John Kanongata intercepted a tipped pass and the Wolverines needed only to take a knee a few times to run out the clock.

“When you play a game like this you have to make the momentum plays,” Valach said. “And we came within an inch of making another momentum play there.”

Liberty came out shooting to start the game. Wheeler went 5 for 6 with 65 yards and capped the contests’ first drive with an 11-yard toss to Bainton a fade route to the left in the end zone.

Each team traded punts before Bellevue’s Joe Joe Conner tied the game with an 11-yard rush to the right after an impressive fake.

“They fake so well,” Valach said. “We’re a very disciplined defense and when we’re biting on those fakes that tells you how excellent they are.”

Bellevue ran into trouble earlier in that drive when it committed four penalties in the span of two plays, leaving itself with 30 yards to travel for the first down. Kendrick Van Ackeren rolled out to the left and hit Brayden Van Ackeren to get the conversion and keep the drive alive.

The Patriots were then driving again before Bainton lost a fumble on a very close call. Bellevue’s Will Fields returned the ball 50 yards for a score to put Bellevue up 14-7. The Wolverines added a field goal to enter the half up 17-7.

Bellevue came out of the half and ran out of the Wing-T to put together a seven-minute scoring drive and go up 24-7.

On the next drive, Liberty was able to keep Bellevue’s defense off-guard by using Jenkins heavily in the run game to set up passes. Jenkins rushed five times for 35 yards on the drive before Wheeler hit him with a pass over the middle for a 40-yard score.

Liberty forced Bellevue into a punt before Wheeler found Bainton on the fade route to the left again for another score that brought the Patriots closer, 24-21. Jenkins touched the ball six times for 36 yards on the drive.

The Wolverines then went on another long, clock consuming drive. Liberty’s defense stopped them at the nine-yard line and forced the field goal to set up its final drive of the game.

Despite the fact the two teams played evenly and Liberty has clearly improved vastly, the Patriots aren’t satisfied with a close loss.

“We wanted to come in and win this game, period,” said Liberty’s Jenkins. “If we lost by a touchdown or we lost by 30, we wanted the ‘W’ no matter what. We should’ve won that game and we wanted nothing less.”

Liberty has one game left in the regular season, against Mount Si next Oct. 30.