FREEDOM SLOSHES THEIR WAY INTO DISTRICT SEMIFINALS.
Tagged under: District 11, News
Brian Ptashinski | November 3, 2018
BETHLEHEM- Friday night the Freedom Patriots got a chance for a do-over. Just six short days ago holding a 10-0 lead over their Bethlehem city rivals, the Liberty Hurricanes, a disasterous second half which included five consecutive turnovers ended the Patriots shot an undefeated regular season and even worse its second straight loss to Liberty by a score of 29-10.
In a driving rain and in front a sparce, but undeterred football fans at BASD Stadium a late score rallied the Patriots to a 14-7 victory over the Hurricanes. The win advances Freedom to the PIAA Distrct XI 6A semifinal game against six-time defending champions, the Parkland Trojans, a 35-0 winner over Stroudsburg. That game will be at Bethlehem Area School District Stadium next Friday night at 7pm.
After a scoreless first quarter, and both teams trying to gain their footing and holding onto the ball. Freedom broke the scoreless tie at the 9:20 mark of the second quarter with an 18 yard TD pass from quarterback Jared Jenkins to Vincent Reph. Jenkins hit Reph in the flat around the 10 yard line, Reph outran a Liberty defender into the corner of the end zone. The PAT was no good leaving the score at 6-0 that remained until intermission.
9:20 till half Freedom scores on 18yd pass. PAT no good. Freedom 6 Liberty 0. @WPAFootball @PaFootballNews @ScoreStreamDwp @HSPNSports @HSFBamerica @BadgleyBruce @CaryMoyer @LVSportsInsider @skook_sports @NEPAFootball @MuggsyNycz pic.twitter.com/ySu5mKK6uS
— Brian Ptashinski (@BPtashinski) November 2, 2018
The Hurricanes grabbed the lead with 2:54 left in the third quarter, after receiving a punt at their own 31. One play later Dallas Holmes hooked up with speedster Javonte Haynes for a 69 yard score, with the point-after made the score 7-6.
The game winning drive began late in the third quarter for Freedom culminating in a a Jared Jenkins five yard touchdown run on third down, as he was rolling out looking for a receiver, he decided to tuck the ball away and head towards the end zone. Diving head first he just did get the ball across the goal line. The Patriots decided to go for the two point conversion, Jenkins converted with a pass to Jack Gawlik to make the score 14-7 with 8:32 left in the contest.
Jenkins 5yd run for Freedom. 8:32 left in the game. Freedom leads 14-7 after 2pt conversion. @PaFootballNews @WPAFootball @BadgleyBruce @CaryMoyer @skook_sports @HSPNSports @LVSportsInsider @HSFBamerica @ScoreStreamDwp pic.twitter.com/BWqhRGp0nC
— Brian Ptashinski (@BPtashinski) November 3, 2018
Liberty had one lost shot at getting the “W” with about three minutes left, but a fumble at the 1:57 mark ended any thoughts of its second consecutive win over their cross-town rival. In the loss Hurrcanes RB Nasir Legree did become the schools all-time leading rusher on a 37 yard run in the first half giving him an unofficial 4,132 yards surpassing Darren Mason’s 4,023 from 1997-99.
“This is Liberty. We didn’t need to to talk about revenge or anything like that. They were motivated enough knowing what happened last week. We tried to take the pressure off of them. Our team handled it well.” Freedom coach Jason Roeder stated afterwards.
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