Liberty Christian’s Lesser sets all-time 8-man state football records
Records were going to fall Friday night. It was just a matter of how long it was going to take John Lesser to rewrite the record books.
The simple answer? Not that long.
By halftime, the Liberty Christian senior quarterback was on camera doing TV interviews after becoming the state’s all-time 8-man leader in career rushing and all-purpose touchdowns. The fact that the Patriots ran away from Colton for an 84-30 Southeast 1B victory at Hanford High School was kind of an afterthought.
Liberty Christian (8-0 overall, 5-0 league) scored 54 of the game’s final 62 points.
Making history
Lesser’s historic night started with 4:21 remaining in the first quarter, when he slipped a tackle and plowed ahead for 8 yards. That run pushed him past the mark of 7,539 rushing yards set by Tri-Cities Prep’s Joe Campbell (2003-06).
The other record to fall came on Lesser’s fourth rushing touchdown, a 12-yard run over the left side that gave the Patriots a 30-6 lead with 1:58 to go in the first quarter. That gave him 126 all-purpose touchdowns in his career, surpassing Campbell’s 125.
Lesser rushed for six touchdowns and passed for four on the night.
Filling up the stat sheet
By halftime, Lesser had 23 carries for 245 yards and four rushing touchdowns. He finished the night with 28 carries for 353 yards. He was 9-of-14 passing for 223 yards.
Lesser’s only blemish of the night came on the last play of the first half, when he threw a ball up for grabs that was intercepted. Other than that, it was a pretty standard night on the stat sheet for him.
Pulling away
One thing that was a little out of the ordinary was how close the game was early.
The Patriots, who are on a mission to reclaim the Class 1B state title after losing to Neah Bay in last season’s championship game, jumped out to a 30-6 lead. But Colton, led by quarterback Carter Dahmen, cut the margin to 30-22 early in the second quarter.
The momentum seemed to have shift in Colton’s favor, but that all changed on one play.
Facing fourth-and-25, Lesser scrambled and hit Cameron Godwin on a 47-yard touchdown play to put the Patriots ahead 38-22.
Colton (5-3, 3-2) would get no closer. The Patriots outscored the Wildcats 22-0 in the third quarter to grab a 70-30 lead.
Colton | 14 | 16 | 0 | 0 | — | 30 |
Liberty Christian | 30 | 24 | 22 | 8 | — | 84 |
SCORING PLAYS
L — John Lesser 4 run (run failed)
L — Lesser 3 run (Lesser run)
C — Cameron Bean 14 run (pass failed)
L — Lesser 5 run (Nico Shupe pass from Lesser)
L — Lesser 12 run (Lesser run)
C — Grant Kinzer 70 pass from Carter Dahmen (Brady Chadwick pass from Dahmen)
C — Kinzer 37 pass from Dahmen (Reece Chadwick pass from Dahmen)
L — Cameron Godwin 47 pass from Lesser (Lesser run)
L — Lesser 90 run (Konner Dehoed run)
C — Kinzer 26 pass from Dahmen (Bean pass from Dahmen)
L — Rory Utley 17 pass from Lesser (Lesser run)
L — Lesser 64 run (Lesser run)
L — Godwin 27 pass from Lesser (Lesser run)
L — Godwin 27 pass from Lesser (Lesser run)
L — Shupe 38 pass from den Hoed (den Hoed run)
STATISTICS
Rushing – C, Bean 15-74, Dahmen 9-(minus-2). L, Lesser 28-353, Shupe 7-52.
Passing – C, Dahmen 19-36-2-310. L, Lesser 9-14-1-223.
Receiving – C, Kinzer 5-182, B. Chadwick 7-48. L, Godwin 4-123, Utley 2-33, Stephen Carter 1-46.
First Downs – C 14, L 23. Penalties-Yards C 35, LC 4-38. Fumbles-Lost – C 0-0, L 0-0.
This story was originally published October 23, 2015 at 11:30 PM with the headline "Liberty Christian’s Lesser sets all-time 8-man state football records."