Freedom on mission after ’20 disappointment
Patriots take next step toward title trophy after defeating Northampton
Jason Roeder said his team didn’t dwell on it every single day of the last year.
However, the memory remains fresh of what happened on Nov. 20, 2020.
In a memorable District 11 6A football final at Whitehall High School, Roeder’s Freedom Patriots fell to Nazareth 37-29.
On Friday night, one day shy of exactly a year later, Roeder’s Freedom team returns to Whitehall in a quest to get what eluded them last year, the 6A championship.
Instead of Nazareth, they will play an Emmaus team that has knocked off the defending champion Blue Eagles and top-seeded Parkland on the road so far in this year’s tournament.
The 9-3 Green Hornets have never won a district gold. The Patriots have won only one. That came in 2018 when Freedom pounded Emmaus 49-17 in the championship game.
The Green Hornets won the previous meeting this year, 13-6 on Sept. 3, so motivation abounds for both teams in what will be the last district final to be played this fall.
For Freedom, the preparation for this game started after last year’s district loss.
“Last year we walked off the field with silver medals and that is still fresh in everyone’s mind,” Roeder said. “It’s a day-by-day process and the kids worked hard in the offseason in the weight room to get back to here. It’s not like we talked about it every day. It’s not like we fixated on it, but it’s not easy to start an offseason that way with a loss like that. It’s a long wait to get back here and a lot of work has to go in on a day-by-day basis and our kids have done that.”
The final step on the road back to the district final came with a tougher-than-some-expected 21-9 win over Northampton on Friday night.
Overcoming the loss of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference’s leading rusher Deante Crawford to injury and three interceptions thrown by quarterback Brian Taylor, Freedom found a way to extend its winning streak to eight in a row after a 2-2 start.
Freedom got 143 yards rushing and two TDs on the ground from Taylor while Jalen Fletcher ran for 65 yards and a TD and Kyle Johnson added 66 yards on the turf.
The Patriots compiled 274 yards rushing and were able to put the game away with a 62-yard, 7-play drive that resulted in Fletcher’s 5-yard scoring run with 4:31 left.
“We needed to run the football and we did,” Roeder said. “Northampton runs the football well, too, and we bent a little more than we would have liked. But we came up with some good stops in the red zone.”
Freedom, which has had trouble early in games at times this season, started fast in taking a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. However, the lopsided result many thought would happen never came.
“We hit some big runs and got stops early, but then we shot ourselves in the foot a little bit after that,” Roeder said. “We turned the ball over three times and you can’t make a habit of that in November and expect to win, but we overcame those with some defense and blocked a field goal attempt. As always there’s room for improvement.”
Roeder gave lots of credit to Northampton, which lost for the first time after a school-record 11-0 start and the first district playoff win in program history.
The Konkrete Kids, fortunately, have one more game to play. It’s on Thanksgiving morning at Catasauqua.
“I’m really proud of the way the kids fought,” first-year Northampton coach John Toman said. “I wondered how our kids would come out because they’re not used to playing in games like this while Freedom has been in the semifinals it seems like every year and their kids know what to expect. I think we came out a little bit in awe and they went down the field on us in their first two drives and it’s 14-0. But then we hunkered down and realized we could play with them.”
When it was 14-9 in the fourth quarter, Toman said that the Northampton side of a packed Al Erdosy Stadium got excited.
“It was like ‘Oh my gosh, we still have a chance to win this game,’ but we just couldn’t make one more stop defensively,” Toman said. “Overall, I thought we played extremely well. It’s just a shame we started slow, but I am extremely proud of all the kids. I know our young sophomores, Caden Henritzy and Tristen Pinnock are going to be better for this in the future having played in a game like this.”
Henritzy and Pinnock combined for 100 yards rushing on 25 carries. Pinnock also had two interceptions on defense while senior Caden Reph had five tackles and a pick. Cooper King, another senior, threw for 122 yards and a touchdown created by a pinball-type of run by Henritzy.
“It was a great experience for the seniors and we were excited to see some of those younger kids do well on a bigger stage,” Toman said. “The place was packed and it was loud. And there was a lot of pomp and circumstance they’re not used to. Maybe the moment got to us in the beginning. But hey, we battled. In the end, Freedom played a little better than us, but I think we proved we belonged and we can play [with EPC South teams].”