As Freedom and Bethlehem Catholic enter this weekend’s District 11 semifinal rounds, they encounter opponents that bring plenty of familiarity over the years, as well as this season.

Freedom (4-1) will host Easton (3-3) at 7 p.m. Friday at BASD Stadium in a rematch of a 21-10 week two victory by the Patriots.

Fresh off their 42-0 win over Pocono Mountain West last week in the opening round of the 6A tournament, the Pates get a Rover squad that is beaming with confidence and momentum after they provided the biggest upset of the District 11 tournament last weekend by knocking off Emmaus 28-23.

Freedom head coach Jason Roeder knows it’s never easy to beat an opponent twice in the same season, but also is confident his team will be prepared for what the Rovers will throw at them.

“They’re still the same Easton team that likes to run the ball and tackles well,” he said. “We’re pretty familiar with them, but we also can’t give up the type of explosive plays that they [Easton] had last week. That #6 had a great game on every side of the ball. We need to limit that.”

That #6 Roeder is referring to was junior Marcus Williams, who scored every touchdown for the Rovers last week, bringing back two kickoff returns for scores, a 65-yard rushing score and a 21-yard receiving touchdown.

And for good measure, he also had the game clinching interception on the defensive side of the ball.

Williams finished the night with 10 carries for 92 yards, filling in for injured running back Nahjee Adams.

Adams status for this week’s contest is still up in the air, but Freedom will have its hands full with the emergence of Williams.

“We’ll obviously make some adjustments,” said Roeder about seeing the Rovers a second time around. “I think the kids understand what’s going to be important to winning this game. They played really focused last week, which was something I was very happy about after the layoff we had.”

Freedom blew out Pocono Mountain West in the first 24 minutes of action last week, building a 42-0 lead at halftime to enact the mercy rule.

Quarterback Ethan Neidig completed all eight of his passes for 134 yards and a score, while rushing for 50 yards and two more touchdowns. Deante Crawford (58 yards) added two touchdowns on the ground and Matt Russin (64 yards) scored a TD as well in the rout.

Bethlehem Catholic (4-3) advanced to the 4A semifinals with a 17-0 win over Blue Mountain last Saturday. After not scoring a touchdown in their previous two losses to Freedom and Central Catholic, Becahi scored TDs on its first two offensive drives of the game to take a 14-0 lead.

Sophomore quarterback Luke Thomas, who is filling in for injured starter Jared Richardson, got the scoring started with a 27-yard TD run and then threw an eight-yard score to Eric Wert.

Thomas finished with 41 yards throwing on the afternoon, but the Hawks racked up 133 yards rushing en route to the win. Scoring points certainly was a welcoming sign for a team that was starving for offensive success.

“You got to be able to score points to win games,” said head coach Joe Henrich. “Scoring touchdowns helps with the emotional aspect of the team and it gives the guys a sense of gratification. I think this will help us feel better about ourselves and reinforce a positive mindset.”

Now the hard part comes, as they take on Central Catholic (4-2) for the second time in three weeks. The top-seeded Vikings got last week off when Bangor was forced out of action due to COVID, making this a back-to-back affair for Central to play Becahi.

In their first encounter, Central took care of business in a 35-3 victory, which Henrich hopes can be a different result this time if his team can change their energy.

“I think last time Central was the more emotional team,” Henrich said. “They had a higher level of energy and that goes with the passion and desire you have going out to do something you love. I think our guys will have a better energy level this week coming off a win.”

While both coaches are focused on this week’s opponents, the threat of games being canceled due to COVID concerns seem to be raising, as teams like East Stroudsburg, Parkland, Saucon Valley and Bangor have had to bow out of the playoffs for those reasons.

For Roeder, his team’s approach hasn’t changed since the beginning.

“We’re very focused on the day-by-day process,” he said. “I think our kids are kind of used to it all by now.”

Henrich, meanwhile, knows he can only control things at his own disposal.

“I don’t think our kids think about that stuff too much,” said Henrich. “I’ve grown better at understanding that you can’t stress out over things you can’t control.”