After frustrating road losses at Emmaus and Parkland, Freedom football coach Jason Roeder was left wondering why his team couldn’t put things all together long enough to beat a quality Eastern Pennsylvania Conference South Division foe away from Bethlehem.
On Friday night at Nazareth’s Andy Leh Stadium, Roeder got the complete effort in the second half that has been so elusive.
The Patriots broke away from a 14-14 halftime tie with 24 straight points and posted its most impressive victory of the season — 38-21 to hit the midway mark of the EPC regular season at 3-2.
Deante Crawford rushed for 201 yards on 47 carries and scored four touchdowns as Freedom, which lost twice to Nazareth in 2020 including the thrilling District 11 6A title game, dominated the second half.
Aiding the Patriots offense was five takeaways by the defense. Jalen Fletcher, Connor Stofanak, and Ethan Neidig had interceptions and Kyle Johnson was among those with a fumble recovery.
Nazareth managed to end the night on a positive note as Sonny Sasso hit Broc Bender for a 9-yard touchdown pass with two seconds left, but that score didn’t diminish the Freedom performance.
“Going into halftime, we were just pointing out where we were missing things and where we were making errors on both sides of the ball and getting them fixed,” Patriots coach Jason Roeder said. “There was no panic. I was happy the way the kids responded this week, the way they responded in the second half. The turnovers were big. We were negative-four in turnover ratio before this one and that’s not us.”
Thanks, in part, to the turnovers, Freedom outgained Nazareth (3-2, 1-2) 243-112 and ran 43 plays to the Patriots’ 18 in the second half. In terms of possession time, Freedom had the ball for 18:35 and Nazareth 5:25.
“We talked about consistency and one play at a time,” Roeder said. “We knew it was going to be a four-quarter game. The kids actually started to respond on Tuesday and Wednesday which is hard to do sometimes. It’s easy to respond on a Friday night, but they started to respond early in the week with great practices.”
Brian Taylor didn’t have to pass the ball as frequently as Sasso, but completed 7 of 10 for 190 yards.
Two of his biggest throws were to Neidig for 61 yards, including a 28-yard touchdown on fourth-and-long in the first quarter.
Joshua Ruela had a big field-changing 65-yard catch-and-run and Jalen Fletcher had two grabs for 42 yards.
Nazareth’s high-flying attack, which had produced the most yards and points in the league through four weeks, was limited in large part because of the turnovers.
“We played a good first half, but we turned the ball over way too much,” Blue Eagles coach Tom Falzone said. “You can’t turn it over that much against anybody, especially a good team like Freedom. They were on the field the entire second half. The time of possession was lopsided in their favor. They were able to grind it, chunk it, wear us down.”
The beneficiary was Crawford, who missed the team’s win over Easton two weeks ago due to COVID-19 protocols and was not at 100 percent last week at Parkland.
“I’m tired, but I am happy,” Crawford said. “I just have to give great credit to my O-line for doing a great job. If they do their job, I can do mine and I can make plays. We just had to keep ourselves calm and stay focused.”
Calmness and focus wasn’t always there in the losses at Emmaus and Parkland, but they returned as did the good vibes.
“It’s good to see our kids smile,” Roeder said. “We take the losses hard. So we’re at the midway point of the season and now our kids are pumped.”
Meanwhile, at night’s end, Falzone was left more concerned about what appeared to be a significant injury to junior Nolan Lobb, who entered the game as the EPC’s top receiver with 20 catches for 379 yards.
Lobb was carted off the field long after the game ended.
With or without Lobb, Nazareth must regroup for the season’s second half.
“This was our first loss at home in a while,” Falzone said. “I don’t even remember the last home loss. We didn’t lose here the last two years. So, that’s a different feeling. We had a great group of fans here tonight and we didn’t get it done for them. So, we regroup, look at the film in the morning and try to limit the mistakes we made.”
The series
Nazareth entered Friday’s game with a 12-10 edge in the all-time series with Freedom. The Blue Eagles entered on a three-game win streak and were 9-4 since 2009. It has also been one of the highest-scoring series in the EPC with the preceding 10 games averaging 61.7 points, highlighted by Freedom’s wild 67-34 win in 2014. That game featured two kickoff returns for scores, two blocked punt returns for TDs, and a fumble recovery in the end zone for another TD. Also, the Patriots racked up 467 yards on offense.
What’s next
After two weeks on the road, Freedom returns to Bethlehem Area School District Stadium to play Allentown Central Catholic on Friday night. Nazareth will also be at BASD for the second time this season, taking on Liberty in a 7 p.m. game Saturday, Oct. 2.
Orange for Cade
There were lots of people wearing orange hats and shirts on both sides of Leh Stadium in honor of Cade Lutz, a 2021 Nazareth graduate, who has been diagnosed with leukemia. Even Freedom’s “Riot Squad” student cheering section wore orange in support of Lutz.
Scoring summary
Freedom 38, Nazareth 21
Freedom 7 – 7 – 10 -14 — 38
Nazareth 7 – 7 – 0- 7 — 21
FIRST QUARTER
N: Tyler Rohn 1 run (Chris Bugbee kick), 8:26
F: Ethan Neidig 28 pass from Brian Taylor (Zeyad Ragab kick), 4:14
SECOND QUARTER
N: Rohn 1 run (Bugbee kick), 8:26
F: Deante Crawford 1 run (Ragab kick), 7:23
THIRD QUARTER
F: Crawford 3 run (Ragab kick), 6:31
F: Ragab 25 field goal, 2:20
FOURTH QUARTER
F: Crawford 13 run (Ragab kick), 10:15
F: Crawford 6 run (Ragab kick), 1:52
N: Broc Bender 9 pass from Sonny Sasso (Bugbee kick), 0:02
TEAM STATISTICS
Statistic, Freedom, Nazareth
First Downs, 16, 16
Rushes-Yds, 53-211, 30-137
Passes C-A-I, 7-10-0, 17-24-3
Passing Yds, 190, 150
Fumbles-Lost, 0, 4-2
Penalties-Yds, 8-65, 4-37
INDIVIDUAL STATS
RUSHING
Freedom: Crawford 47-201, 4 TDs; Taylor 4-6; Dunbar 1-4; Fletcher 1-0.
Nazareth: Rohn 23-101, 2 TDs; Sasso 3-22; Bonsignore 2-10; Hilarczyk 2-4.
PASSING
Freedom: Taylor 7-10-0, 190 yards, TD.
Nazareth: Sasso 17-24-3, 150 yards, TD.
RECEIVING
Freedom: Neidig 2-61, TD; Fletcher 2-42; Ruela 1-65; Johnson 1-14; Crawford 1-8.
Nazareth: Kuehner 6-53; Hilarczyk 5-38; Lobbb 3-37; Dugdale 2-13; Bender 1-9, TD.
