It was not how Joe Bernard thought things would play out in last Thursday’s city rivalry against Freedom.

The Golden Hawks were beat in every facet by the Patriots, losing in a 28-0 shutout to drop their season record to 5-2.

Playing without quarterback Cayden Vassa certainly helped keep the Hawks offense limited, as Beca amassed 194 yards of total offense and never really threatened

“I was concerned with the short week, but you can’t shoot yourself in the foot like we did in this game,” said Bernard. “I thought Freedom did a really good job up front on both sides of the ball and they won the line of scrimmage. That’s really what it comes down to.”

The Hawks fell behind 14-0 at halftime thanks to a pair of Patriot (4-3) touchdowns in the second quarter, when Michael Stofanak hit Jacob Hauze on a six-yard receiving score, followed by a 15-yards touchdown run by Abraham Pla.

Stofanak added another throwing score in the fourth quarter and Jahaire Hughes capped it off with an 11-yard touchdown run to round out the scoring.

The Hawks turned the ball over twice and committed eight penalties for 70 yards to compound matters.

They also lost wide receiver/cornerback Carter Vassa with a leg injury in the first half to take away another offensive threat, as Axel Burkart struggled to find rhythm under center, completing 13-of-27 for 102 yards and an interception.

“If you don’t play well and have penalties, that’s the result,” said Bernard. “When you don’t have one of the best kids in the Valley like Cayden not out there it hurts too.

We just need to watch the tape and learn from our mistakes.

The good thing is we had a lot of young guys out there and it was encouraging. Now we just got to bounce back for Nazareth.”

Things don’t get any easier for the Hawks this week, as they hit the road on Friday and take on Nazareth (6-1). The Blue Eagles just hung up 52 points on Liberty in their win last week and will be a handful offensively.