The bigger the game, the less room for mistakes.

The No. 8 seed Hamilton Huskies, who have a long history of being on the winning end of their fair share of big games in their program’s history, found themselves on the receiving end of a season-ending lesson in Saturday's Open Division semifinal at Mountain Pointe High School. A couple of miscues by Hamilton (10-2) turned a close game through most of the first half into a runaway just before halftime, allowing Liberty to walk away with a 56-24 result.

The win puts the Lions (11-1) into the Open final, where they will take on the Basha Bears. After the No. 4 seed Lions jumped out to a 21-7 lead just under two minutes into the second quarter on a Dominic Lombardo 1-yard run, Hamilton answered back with a 10-play drive capped with a 36-yard field goal by Jackson Swink, making it 21-10 Liberty with 6:50 left in the first half.

And when the Huskies’ defense stiffened up on the ensuing Liberty drive, it looked as if they would force a punt and start to close the gap even more. But that's when the game pivoted squarely in favor of the Lions for good.

Instead of forcing a punt, Hamilton was whistled for a penalty that kept Liberty's drive alive. Two plays later, quarterback Hayden Fletcher found sophomore Jayden Sanchez on a short screen pass to the right.

Sanchez proceeded to break a total of five tackles, weaving his way into the end zone for a 28-10 Lions’ lead with just 3:11 showing in the half.

But they weren’t done.

Two quick failed drives, one by each team, left the half winding down to under a minute. That's when Hamilton forced a Liberty punt, which was fumbled and recovered by the Lions’ long snapper Brody Johnson, who raced down the field, at the Hamilton 10.

Two plays later, Fletcher found Jayce Waddlington in the corner of the end zone for a 35-10 halftime lead.

“Brody Johnson is just an amazing player. He’s a long snapper, a Division I player. He just made a great individual play,” said Liberty head coach Colin Thomas. “That Centennial game was kind of the same game right before the half. He kinda stole some points and created a lot of momentum. I’m just proud of him as a senior, a four-year guy, that just waited his turn. He’s made big plays all year.”

Fletcher agreed that the favorable sequence pushed the lead out to an insurmountable 25 points at halftime.

“That was big. The one thing we always want to create is a snowball effect. Once that happened and we got the recovery and put it in the end zone right before half, we knew we were rolling,” said Fletcher.

On the night, the senior threw five touchdowns, to four different receivers, playing his part in the two-headed monster that was Liberty's offense.

Lombardo did his part with three rushing touchdowns while senior kicker Karsten Dombrovski was 8-for-8 on extra point attempts to add to the final tally.

For Hamilton, they received a valiant effort by many players, most notably quarterback Richard Lucero Jr. The senior finished the night with two rushing touchdowns and a nifty 11-yard passing touchdown to freshman Roye Oliver.

Lucero’s performance, along with several other seniors and junior running back Jacob Brown, left first-year coach Travis Dixon proud of how the team’s season went.

“Overall, I am just proud of the guys, proud of the seniors and proud of the coaching staff. To be in year one and the strides we made as a program this season has been huge. It was just unfortunate we fell short," Dixon said.