A new coach, new players, and a new style is making for some new challenges for the Freedom Patriots, but the challenges are welcomed by first-year head coach Bob Eaton.

Despite losses to Nazareth, Whitehall, and Emmaus, Eaton sees the benefit of playing against power teams early in the season.

"Our first three games were absolutely brutal, but it's absolutely a positive. You get better by playing better teams," Eaton said.

The Patriots loss to the Blue Eagles was by a score of 4-1, Whitehall 4-0, and Emmaus 3-0.

"Overall, I was more pleased with the Whitehall game, simply because we played a little more aggressively, and I could see bits and pieces of what we're trying to implement fall into place," said Eaton.

In the Nazareth game, the Patriots were down 1-0 with five minutes left, but the Blue Eagles were able to score three more goals before time expired.

Freedom senior defender, Christa Eaton, said, "We took out one defender to put a forward in. We still had to adjust to it, but overall, we took more positive stuff out of it. We didn't do as well as we planned against Whitehall. After Nazareth, we had high expectations, but Whitehall is a good team, and we knew it was coming."

Also last week, Parkland defeated Bethlehem Catholic, 5-0, and Liberty, 4-2.