The Freedom Patriots packed-in all their points to the first half and held on in the second half to pull out a 31-17 victory over Easton on Friday night at Bethlehem Area School District Stadium.

“Easton’s beat up on a lot of teams the past couple years, so we wanted to come out and be physical and run them out of our stadium, and we did that in the first half. We have a couple things to clean up, though,” said Patriot defensive lineman Braelin Moore. “They put a couple points on the board, we put our first team back in and tried to close the game out, and I think we did that.”

Capitalizing on Red Rover mistakes was the momentum shift that broke a 3-3 tie in the second quarter.

“You never anticipate that, but you never know, so it’s a matter of playing every play and playing fast and being in the right place,” said Freedom head coach Jason Roeder. “When you hustle, you’re in the right place for those things to happen, the fumble recoveries, so that’s a good sign of hustle by our defense.”

Easton lost the football on a fourth-and-four, scooped up by Owen Johnson who ran 55 yards for Freedom’s first touchdown at 7:44.

Two minutes later, running back Jalen Fletcher ran for 24 yards and Freedom’s second touchdown.

With 2:53 left to play in the first half, Freedom tight end Kyle Johnson skirted around several Red Rover defenders to score for the Pates again.

Moore picked up an Easton fumble with less than a minute to go, and Freedom quarterback Brian Taylor completed a pass to Fletcher for the Patriot junior’s second touchdown of the night.

“I had to step up because our starting running back wasn’t here tonight, so Coach told me I was gonna’ be able to play a big part and that’s what I tried to do for my team,” Fletcher said. “This feels great, but we have more work to do, more errors to correct, but it feels good, and I congratulate us on the win.”

Moore closed out the half with a sack on Red Rover quarterback Cole Transue, Moore’s first of two sacks on Friday night.

“It’s a huge game, an EPC South game, and especially coming off a loss,” said Coach Roeder. “This is the first time this team came off a loss, and it was our first real test last week, so the way we responded, I’m really proud of them.”

Easton’s first touchdown came early in the fourth quarter on Transue’s pass to wide receiver Juju Fears, and with 5:18 left in the game, Transue connected with Nino Rizzolino who stood all alone in the end zone.

“It was all about playing four quarters and finishing, but we’re not there yet,” Roeder said. “I said to them at the end of the game, we’re not ready to win a championship yet, but we will be if we keep getting better. The idea is we challenge them to get better after a loss, and we’re going to challenge them to get better after a win.”

On Freedom’s last possession, Fletcher ran for 25 yards before dropping the ball as he crossed into the end zone.

“Last game I was cramping a lot. I drank no water. This game, I was pushing, and that fourth-quarter run, I don’t know. I ran into the end zone and pulled my hamstring, and dropped the ball,” he said.

Easton turned the ball over on downs to end the game after Transue was sacked by Rayshawn Nicholas.

“Our effort was there, our attitude and physicality were there, so all good signs,” said Roeder. “We have high-character, coachable kids who want to get better, so I’m excited for next week.”