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Last Minute Score Lifts Freedom to Victory @becahifootball @fhsriotsquad

Tagged under: District 11, Gameday Hub, News

| August 31, 2019

BETHLEHEM- They say the second game of the high school football season is really where you can see where a team stands. Both Bethlehem Catholic and Bethlehem Freedom coming off of lopsided wins in week one met Friday night before a large and boisterous crowd at BASD Stadium. When the dust settled Freedom came out on top with a Jalen Stewart one yard dive in the waning seconds to produce a 24-21 win.

The game opened fast and furious as Freedom took possession at their 39 but where forced to punt after crossing midfield but the ball carried into the end zone giving Bethlehem Catholic the ball at their own 20. The Golden Hawks mixing up passes and rushes moved the ball to the Freedom eight yard line, from there Tavion Banks capped the drive with his first of three scores on the night with 4:26 left in the opening quarter.


Freedom answered right back on their next possession as Gabe Caton was on the receiving end of a Jared Jenkins pass that covered 53 yards, to knot the game at seven with 3:37 left in the quarter.

Banks then scored with 4:26 left in the half on a two yard rush to make the score 14-7 in favor of the Hawks. Freedom would score the last 1 points of the quarter on a 25 yard field goal by Nick Stannard and a 8 yard score by Stewart with 19 seconds left before half to make the score 17-14 at intermission.

The Golden Hawks got the lead back at 21-17 with 7:23 left in the third quarter, it was Banks again from four yards out.

Bethlehem Catholic had a chance to ice the game midway through the final quarter. They moved the 62 yards on the drive, but then faced a crucial fourth and five from the Patriot 18. After calling a timeout, Tavion Banks came out as the quarterback in a run-pass option play, but was held to a one yard gain and the Hawks turned it over on downs with just under 5 minutes to go in the game.

“That is on me.” A dejected Bethlehem Catholic coach Joe Henrich said. “I should have taken a timeout and got the play right. That was just stupidity on my part.” He concluded.

That would setup the game-winning drive for the Patriots as they moved ball down field with Stewart having two runs over 15 yards. With just 10 seconds on the clock, Stewart too the handoff from the Becahi one and dove over the goal line to cap the 83 yard drive in just over four minutes.


“He played his heart out tonight.” An elated Joe Roeder, head coach at Freedom stated. “He battled all night on both sides of the ball.” “He set quite example for rest of our players tonight.” He concluded.

Freedom (2-0 overall, 1-0 EPC South) will be on the road next Friday at Parkland, who defeated Allentown Central Catholic 14-8 Friday night. While Bethlehem Catholic (1-1, 0-1) will be back at BASD Stadium to face Bethlehem Liberty, a 20-0 winner over Pocono Mountain East.

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