It’s been a historic week for Freedom’s lacrosse programs, as both the boys and girls teams advanced with major upsets in the District 11 tournaments.

The girls knocked off Emmaus 9-8 in overtime Monday night, registering the biggest win in school history.

Senior Abby Burnette scored the game-winner with 1:13 left in the game to send the Patriots to their first district final in program history Wednesday night against Easton.

Freedom (14-3) lost both of their matchups with Emmaus earlier this season and have historically struggled to knock off the blue blood lacrosse programs in the area.

That narrative has now changed with Monday’s win over Emmaus (17-3), who was the presumptive favorite to advance to the finals out of the bracket.

The Pates now face their biggest test of the season with a bout against Easton at 7:35 p.m. tonight at Northampton.

Freedom lost to Easton 19-6 earlier this season, as the EPC champion Rovers (17-0) have been the top team in the area all season.

On the boys side, Freedom scored its own upset last week by knocking off Easton 8-7 in overtime in the quarterfinal round of districts to push them to Tuesday’s semifinals against Emmaus.

“Words can’t describe the feeling of winning that game,” said head coach Tony Fabrizio. “It was very bittersweet for me playing and coaching at Easton previously, but it was an even better feeling for our boys finally being able to top one of the big four teams. It means so much for the program. I’ve talked to them numerous times about how differently that same game against Easton has not gone in our favor in previous years. The players have put in hard work on and off the field to make this program what it is today. We also can’t forget about the previous players as well. They built the foundation that this year’s team was able to build upon. I would say this was one of our biggest wins as a program, but I don’t want to discredit all of the work my previous teams have done to get us here.”

The task now was taking on the top-seeded Hornets (18-1) in last night’s final four round, which was past Press deadlines.

The Pates (11-5) will be underdogs against the EPC champions, but after losing 16-4 earlier this season to Emmaus, Fabrizio hopes some tweaks can make a difference this time around.

“As far as Emmaus, we’re hoping to shake up the Lehigh Valley lacrosse scene,” he said. “We’ve put in some new concepts and looked long and hard at our mistakes we made the first game with them. We’re hoping this game will go differently, our boys deserve it.”