Liberty's season ended last year watching another team hoist the championship trophy.
"We went over there, thought we had a chance to win and came up short," Liberty head coach Mike Dewey said.
With 14 seniors gone from the 2016 team, rarely does a 2B school get a second shot at a championship the following season.
But, here they are.
"I'm always optimistic, so Iw as the guy saying 'we had a pretty good team coming back,' but nobody believed me," Dewey said with a laugh.
Senior lineman Tyson Schenk said, "Yeah, lots of people doubted us at the beginning. They thought we wouldn't be good, but we proved everybody wrong and it has been an awesome ride."
While many recognize what this team lost, no one talked about what this team had coming into the program as the Lancers have done something last year's team did not--go a perfect 13-0 entering the Tacoma Dome.
"I knew when we were really little we were going to have a good team," Schenk said. "So, seeing this come together as a senior is really awesome."
Dewey added, "I don't think we are as physically talented as we were last year, but this is a group that has really come together and likes each other and works hard and really pushes each other."
Only twice has Liberty earned a state championship and quarterback Alec Fletcher has strong ties to both those teams in 1982 and 1992.
"My grandpa was a coach and my uncle was on the team that won one of the state titles, so it's kind of that big thing to be the next legacy," Fletcher said.
The Fletcher family can remember the image of winning a championship, but none of these kids were alive to witness any of that. Most of these players, though, do remember that loss last season--an image they can erase on Saturday.
"It hurt a lot last year. Getting all the way there and not being able to win," Schenk said. "So, it has pushed us...we're really excited to go into this."
Fletcher said, "We got there last year and we weren't able to finish the deal. To do it this year would be so much more fun."
Dewey also said, "To win 14 in-a-row would be an absolute dream come true and these guys have put themselves in a position to do it."