Easton was the primary story in Eastern Pennsylvania Conference football in 2025, with the Red Rovers going 13-0 through the regular season and District 11 6A tournament before losing to La Salle College High School in the state quarterfinals. Easton then bounced back with a win over Phillipsburg on Thursday.
But if there was a compelling subplot to last year, it may have been at Liberty, where the Hurricanes won eight games for the first time since 2015.
They beat rival Freedom twice in a row, won the Christmas City championship and advanced to the district semifinals.
Along the way, they had the league’s leading passer in Antonio Fontanez, who threw for 2,827 yards and 38 touchdowns and set school records. They also had a record-breaking receiver in Jake Pukszyn, who caught 55 passes for 906 yards and 15 touchdowns. Zyaire Davis, another receiver, notched 50 receptions for 1,085 yards and 15 scores.
With Fontanez and Pukszyn having graduated along with top defensive players such as JJ Pujals and Adriaan Deleon, the Hurricanes might appear to be in for a rebuilding process in 2026. However, those expecting the program to go back to the struggles of 2021-23 when Liberty was a combined 5-25 are likely going to be wrong.
“Each year is its own thing, but when you’re building a program you also try to build foundation where you can withstand the ebbs and flows of the talent in the program,” said coach Shawn Daignault, who is in his fifth season in charge. “We had a lot of talented kids in the program last year and even the year before and I think we do now as well. But we graduated so much production that we’ll learn a lot about our program. Have we built that foundation? I feel good about where we’re at, but it’s going to be a revealing year.”
Daignault said that 2026 will provide an opportunity for many kids who have been waiting in the wings, players like running back Mekkhi McKenzie.
“He has been starting at linebacker for us the last couple of years and he’s going to continue to play defense for us, but I have been wanting to get the ball in his hands the whole time on offense,” Daignault said. “But we had Gabe Green and Adriaan Deleon who were talented kids and there just wasn’t enough footballs to go around in the running game. So, now it’s Mekkhi’s time to shine. He’s a tough, downhill runner and I am excited to see what he does. And there’s another kid like Jayvion White, who will be a junior this year who didn’t get a chance to play last year. He did a score a touchdown for us against Easton in the playoffs, but I am excited to see what he does.”
Daignault said that along with the offensive production, the team will miss the leadership of the graduated standouts.
“We had amazing leaders all over the field last year, so to lose those guys we’ve had to step in as coaches a little bit and give the younger players some very intentional opportunities to develop as leaders,” Daignault said “That’s been a really big challenge for us as coaches to replace those guys from a leadership standpoint and not just a production standpoint.”
Davis, for one, is excited about the challenge.
“We lost a lot of players that were great, and we have a lot of new players.” Davis said. “We’ve been working hard, and I’m excited to see how we do.”
Liberty’s coach Shawn Daignault talks to his players as they run drills Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, during Liberty high school football practice in Bethlehem (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
3 tidbits on the Hurricanes
Welcome aboard: Daignault’s staff has gone through a variety of changes, starting with the resignations of both offensive coordinator Frank Lane and defensive coordinator Joe Bottiglieri at the end of last season.
Chad Gruver, who had been on the staff even before Daignault was hired, is the new offensive coordinator. He had been the quarterbacks coach.
“He’s an Easton guy,” Daignault said. “We’ve kept the same system, but Chad has his own twist on things, and I am excited for him. He’s ready and he relates really well to the kids.”
Daignault will be his own defensive coordinator, serving in a role he has done before including at Northampton and in college at Stony Brook and at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.
“I missed it and I am having a blast doing it again,” Daignault said. “Defense is my background. I am glad I had someone with great experience and was so good at it like Coach Bott do it the last few years, and I could say ‘it’s yours,” and just be the head coach. But even last year I felt like I was ready to do more. And now I realized how much I missed it. I am having a lot of fun.”
Larry Russell, a Liberty product, is the new linebackers coach. Tony Davis, who played at Liberty but last coached the freshmen at Freedom, is the new running backs coach.
“Five or six guys on the staff are Liberty guys who still bleed blue and red,” Daignault said. “I’ve surrounded myself with good people and I can step away and know it’s not going to be chaos.”
Numbers game: Daignault said there were 80 players on the team in grades 10-12 and that comes after cuts. There’s an additional 55 kids on the freshman team.
Liberty’s Mekkhi McKenzie and Zyaire Davis on Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, during Liberty high school football practice in Bethlehem (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
“Two years in a row we’ve had to make cuts and that’s my least favorite activity,” Daignault said. “It’s difficult at times to get them all in the same room, but it’s a good problem to have. We feel we’ve built a program that people want to be a part of. We’ve got 80 great kids, and I don’t have complaints about who they are as people. I enjoy coaching them. They have been a blast.”
Daignault said there’s a different feel to this year’s team.
“We don’t have as many college prospects and there are no egos and it’s just about winning games and the team comes first,” Daignault said. “Even the college prospects we have like Zyaire Davis and [running back/linebacker] Mekkhi McKenzie are both low-key guys.”
On schedule: While high school football is traditionally a Friday night thing, Liberty will be playing a pair of Thursday nights and its city rivalry games against Bethlehem Catholic and Freedom are both on Saturdays.
“It’s kind of a crazy schedule with games all over the place,” Daignault said. “At one we had games scheduled for Thursdays and then one [Northampton] got moved back to a Friday. The league is always a challenge. There are no easy weeks, especially in the Northampton County division. But the other two divisions aren’t easy either and then we play two tough cross-division games against Whitehall and Pocono Mountain West and those teams are as well-coached as anyone we play. Those two are going to be challenges. And then the Bucks County teams we play are really good teams. Pennridge, our opener, is coming off a 12-4 season. It’s tough but we kind of like it that way because it keeps us to where we have to get better every week and hopefully peak in weeks 9 and 10 in the city series games.”
Football players run drills Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, during Liberty high school football practice in Bethlehem (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
The schedule
Scrimmage
Saturday: host Delaware Valley, 11 a.m.
Regular season
(All games 7 p.m. starts, unless noted)
Aug. 28: at Pennridge
Sept. 4: at Central Bucks East
Sept. 10: host Stroudsburg
Sept. 18: host Northampton
Sept. 24: at Whitehall
Oct. 2: at Pocono Mt. West
Oct. 9: at Nazareth
Oct. 16: host Easton
Oct. 24: at Bethlehem Catholic
Oct. 31: host Freedom 1 p.m.