Hard fought football games always have plays or sequences that determine the direction of the outcome and both Freedom and Emmaus can point to the opening drive of the second half in last Friday’s contest to be the determining factor during a 28-7 victory by the Patriots at Frank Banko Field.

Coming out of the locker room with a 14-7 lead at halftime, Freedom quarterback Joe Young (12-of-19, 184 yards passing and 106 yards rushing) ran 40 yards on the first play from scrimmage to open the half and the momentum carried the Pates (3-0, 2-0) to a perfect start to the season.

Young would then hit Brennan Reinert for a 40-yard completion, which set up Andres Santos for a 1-yard TD to give Freedom a 21-7 lead they would never look back on.

“With the nature of their [Emmaus] run game, we knew that if we can get it to a two score game, we’d be in good position,” said Freedom head coach Jason Roeder. “Whenever you’re with them in a one score game, it makes them [Emmaus] dangerous, so we wanted to come out in the second half and start fast.”

That fast start carried over to the defense, which came out on the next series and stuffed the Hornets with three straight plays for negative yardage. The Pates wouldn’t allow much for the Hornets offense in the second half, as an early fourth quarter one-yard score by Santos made it 28-7.

The three score deficit seemed insurmountable for the struggling Emmaus offense, as their lack of passing made them a one dimensional animal offensively.

Quarterback Derek Sheaffer was 6-of-16 for 22 yards on the night and Hornets’ coach Randy Cuthbert knows they need to get better in that department.

“We made some plays throwing the ball, but we can’t put ourselves in some longer yard situations,” Cuthbert said. “We had a couple throws where we were right there to make a play, but we didn’t. We just have to get back to the drawing board. You can’t feel sorry for yourself in this league. Freedom’s a very good team and we played better than last week [Easton], but we still made too many mistakes.”

The Pates jumped out to an early 14-0 lead when Young hit Reinert for a 50-yard TD in the first quarter. Roberto Diez, who left the game in the second with a leg injury, then barreled in from two yards out in the second to give them a two score cushion.

The Hornets answered when Matt Bisko scored on a 5-yard TD run to cut the lead in half.

Emmaus running back Kyle Boney proved himself again last week, as he rushed 25 times for 157 yards, but the lack of an aerial threat helped Freedom focus on the Emmaus ground attack.

“We started to do some more things to get pressure on their quarterback in the second half,” Roeder said. “I just think we got caught up more with the speed of the game and the kids got more comfortable with what we were asking of them.”

Liberty suffered its first loss last week, falling at Nazareth 37-35. The Eagles (2-1) used big plays throughout the night in the back-and-forth affair to stifle Liberty’s (2-1) bid for a perfect start to the year.

Nazareth quarterback Travis Stefanik was 24-of-36 for 281 yards and two touchdowns, finding wideout Justin Liaci 11 times for 150 yards and two touchdowns, including a 65 yard score just before halftime.

Nazareth sealed the game late in the fourth when Jahan Dotson picked off Liberty QB Doug Erney at midfield, which led to a 6-yard TD run by Dotson on a direct snap followed by a two-point conversion.

Erney finished the day 12-of-31 for 124 yards with an interception. He also rushed for 97 yards and two touchdowns. Nasir Legree (105 yards and two TD’s) and Gunner Anglovich (103 yards and a touchdown) helped lead a potent ground attack.

Liberty turns their focus to hosting Whitehall (2-1) this Friday night in a pivotal EPC clash for both teams.