2022 District XI Class 6A Quarter-Final Preview: Hazleton Area at Bethlehem Freedom

Tagged under: District 11, District 2, News, Playoffs

Brian Ptashinski | November 4, 2022

Friday night at BASD Stadium 8-2 Hazleton Area Cougars at 8-2 Bethlehem Freedom Patriots PIAA District XI/II/IV 6A Subregional Quarter-Final Contest.

Follow @BPtashinski on Twitter for live game updates.

The PIAA District II/IV/XI 6A Subregional Bracket is chocked full of State ranked teams by pafootballnews.com Emmaus, Northampton and Nazareth are all ranked in the top 10. However defending District champion the Patriots of Bethlehem Freedom are lurking.

Freedom is 8-2, but started out 2-2 after four games dropping decisions to Emmaus 19-13 and Parkland 21-13 but having wins against Easton 33-20 and an impressive 45-35 win over Nazareth on September 17th that has propelled the Patriots to seven straight wins including last week’s demolition of rival Bethlehem Liberty 38-7.

The win allowed Freedom to be the fourth seed of eight qualifiers and gave them a home game in the opening round of the playoffs against District II and the fifth seed the Cougars of Hazleton Area, who are making their first appearance in the playoffs since expanding to six classifications. Hazleton comes in also sporting a 8-2 record.

Freedom’s offense is led by running back Jalen Fletcher who has 1,230 yards this season on 162 carries and 20 touchdowns. Quarterback Ethan Neidig has done a nice job under center as well completing 69 of 122 passes for 1,085 yards with 7 touchdowns and five interceptions. Neidig has also rushed for 569 yards on 107 carries and nine scores. WR Owen Johnson is the team’s leading pass catcher with 20 receptions for 323 yards. Fletcher has caught 10 passes for 174 yards and two scores, including a 45 yard touchdown in the win over Liberty. During this seven game winning streak the offense is averaging 38 points per game while the defense has held their opponents to just 12ppg, including the 35 given up to Nazareth. The Ground attack of the Patriots has rushed for 2,401 yards on 377 carries and 39 scores.

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The defense has a plethora of stars as well Owen Johnson leads the team in sacks with 3 and has added 60 tackles to his resume and is two behind team-leader Alexie Sangster’s 62 tackles on the season. Several other players Justin Peluso, Kyle Johnson, Xavier Dubar and Nick Ellis have at least 30 tackles each.

Hazleton Area started the season 5-0 with wins over Pittston Area 47-15, Wallenpaupack 45-7, North Pocono 54-7 Wilkes-Barre Area 20-7 and West Scranton 42-7. Then two straight losses to Dallas and Crestwood, both District II playoff teams 42-20 and 35-14 respectively. The Cougars finished strong though by winning their last three games including a 20-0 shutout last week over rival Berwick.

The Cougars offense revolves around senior quarterback Tyler Wolfe, who has completed 125 of 188 passes for 2,000 yards 24 touchdowns and 7 interceptions for an average of 16 yards per completion. Connor Shaminy and Matt Cusatis are the primary targets for Wolfe as Shaminy has 721 yards on 38 receptions and 6 touchdowns. Cusatis comes into Friday night’s game with 36 catches for 652 yards and 5 touchdowns. Another receiver Ryan Matyas has added five scores as well on 211 yards with 20 receptions. Matthew Buchman leads the ground attack for Hazleton with 893 yards on 134 tallies and 9 scores. Connor Kundrat has rushed for 300 yards and 6 touchdowns on just 38 touches on the season.

On defense senior Qay’von Minor leads the team in tackles from his middle linebacker position with 105 including 13 tackles for losses and has 4 sacks. Cusatis also has 5 interceptions on defense.

Hollywood’s take: The x-factor is the unfamiliarity between these two teams and who can impose their will on the other. The Patriots would like to use ball control offense to keep Wolfe and company on the sidelines. The last time Freedom faced a passing offense was against Nazareth and Sonny Sasso threw for 299 yards and 3 touchdowns on 17 of 30 completions and scored 35 points. Freedom will be by far Hazleton’s toughest test of the season and their two losses have come against both 4A playoff teams. Freedom is hungry to go back-to-back as District champions and the quest begins Friday, but it won’t be easy, if the Patriots struggle to stop the vaunted passing attck of the Cougars. Patriots by 17.

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