Entering week four of the high school football season, the Emmaus Green Hornet defense gave up an average of 26 points per game. Last Friday night that defense was met by a Freedom offense which had committed 12 turnovers in the first three weeks of the season.

The determining factor in the game would be which unit could clean up its act the best.

It was the Emmaus defense that turned out to be the tidiest.

Last Friday night at East Penn School District Stadium, Emmaus (2-2, 2-1) defeated Freedom (1-3, 1-2) by a score of 33-13.

"The first half was great," said Emmaus head coach Randy Cuthbert. "We had some big plays offensively and our defense was playing well. I think all three phases were actually doing very well in the first half."

Big plays were plentiful for Emmaus right out of the gate as Wyl Miller returned the opening kick off deep into Patriot territory that allowed Emmaus to set up shop on Freedom's 13-yard line. Two plays later Miller finished the job with a five-yard scamper into the end zone with 11:10 left in the first quarter to get out to an early 7-0 lead.

"We just were trying to work hard and get what we wanted to get so that we could finish them," Miller said. "We didn't want to end up like we did last Friday. We wanted to get out and get out work in."

The Green Hornets were busy late in the first quarter as senior Tom Bisko scooped up a Freedom fumble and returned it for a 29-yard touchdown with 3:31 left in the first quarter. The lead boosted to 13-0 after a Hunter Kushy extra-point kick was blocked, but Kushy converted his other three in the contest.

To open up the second quarter, Freedom was on Emmaus's 16-yard line, but that threat was thwarted by Kyzir White's interception. White, who had 30 yards receiving in the game, picked off a Josh Gundrum pass and returned it 90 yards for a touchdown. The two-point conversion failed, which made it 19-0 Emmaus with 11:43 left in the second quarter.

"It was great to get out to a fast start," said Cuthbert. "We made a ton of big plays in the first half and we could have had a couple more. We missed Kyzir White in space and couldn't convert once, which I think would have resulted in some more points."

Emmaus headed into the locker room with a 26-0 lead as Andrew Davidson punched in a one-yard touchdown rush with 48 seconds remaining in the first half. Davidson finished with nine rushing yards coupled with his fumble recovery in the third quarter.

"We obviously can't take him off the field defensively," said Cuthbert. "Andy is a different type of player and we are going to work him in there [offensively]. He is big, smart and tough. We don't want him out there every play of the game, but we are going to work him in there for sure."

Another reason for the half-time lead was the play of quarterback Logan Kober. The junior went 7-for-13 with 79 passing yards and 24 rushing yards. The 6-foot-1, 185-pound Kober has developed in to a real running threat.

The majority of the third quarter was dedicated to a Freedom scoring drive that lasted 7:06 and took 15 plays, the last of which was a one-yard rush through the pile by Louden Klotz to make is 26-6 in favor of Emmaus after a failed extra point and that is how the score remained for the rest of the third quarter.

Freedom scored again with 23 seconds remaining in the game, which moved the score to 26-13.

Miller who averaged 5.6 yards per carry coming in to the match up, wanted to increase the lead some more as he took the ensuing kick-off 86 yards for a touchdown that made it 33-13.

Miller sees improvement in himself, the offense and this team as a whole and he is excited about it.

"It feels good," he said. "I hope we get better and better and win more games."