After a quiet first half, Freedom raised the noise in the second half and came up with a 2-0 victory over Northwestern Lehigh on Saturday afternoon at Freedom.

“I knew we had never beaten them, so it was good to get that win for our coach as well,” said Patriot forward Stephen Callaghan. “We controlled a lot of the possession in the first half, so we talked about keeping up the pace, and if we did that in the second half, we knew we would get our chances. Defensively, we needed to stay sound and together, and I think we did a good job of that.”

In the opening minutes of the second half, that chance fell to Callaghan who scored the Pates’ first goal on an assist by Peter Tichy, with the ball originating with Sebastian Garces and Steven Gonzalez.

“It was good,” Callaghan said. “I haven’t scored in awhile, so getting that one definitely helped.”

Tichy took a shot minutes later when Northwestern keeper Mason Crocco came off his line, but Lucas Van Lierop stepped in and headed the ball out.

Then, in the 65th minute, Tichy scored his 20th goal of the season on an assist by Blaine MacIlroy.

Freedom goalie Tristan Willey had six saves for the Patriots, including a close one in the second half.

“It was crowded and confusing, but I trusted my defense, and I came out hard and got there,” Willey said. “The better [my defense] plays, the less I do, so I have to hand it to them.”

The Patriots also defeated Easton, 5-1, last Friday and Nazareth, 2-1, last Wednesday.

“Those games were crazy. Those were fun. A lot of pressure, but again, my defense was good, and I didn’t have to do too much, but games like those are fun to play,” said Willey. “We’re confident, and we secured that playoff spot, but we’re not going to stop pushing.”

The match at Nazareth went into double overtime with the winning goal scored by Michael Krents.

“It was a huge win. It gave us control of the division. It gave us a rebound after our loss to them earlier in the year. It showed that even when we’re not playing at our best, we can still win against a really good team because Nazareth, in my opinion, is one of the best teams in the area,” said Freedom head coach Matt Reightler. “There was a lot of intensity, especially on Nazareth’s part. They really wanted the game, and they took it to us. We probably played a lot more defensive than we usually do. We found an early goal off of Peter Tichy. Second half, they were peppering the goal, and they got theirs. But we found a way to dig in in overtime and get that win.”