It didn’t start out how Freedom had hoped, but it certainly finished like the Patriots expected last Friday night at Whitehall.

Freedom started slow by building a 20-12 halftime lead, but took control of the game in the second half en route to a 41-12 victory.

The win pushes the Pates to 5-2 on the season and winners of three straight, as they scored 34 unanswered points last week to keep a pesky, yet, undermanned Whitehall (3-3) squad at bay.

“I wasn’t crazy about our energy in the first half,” said Freedom head coach Jason Roeder. “I thought we were playing at a different level last week [against Central], but give Whitehall credit. They came off the ball and came right at us. It took a little longer than I would have liked for us to respond, but we did that in the second half.”

Whitehall led 12-7 early in the second quarter when Quinn Wentling capped off a 13-play, 78-yard drive with an eight-yard TD run.

However, that was the end of Whitehall’s scoring, as Freedom running back Deante Crawford scored twice to close out the half and ran for 134 yards and three touchdowns on the night in an impressive performance.

Quarterback Brian Taylor then ran for a 10-yard score in the third and threw a 22-yard TD to Ethan Neidig in the quarter to blow open the contest to the tune of 34-12.

Whitehall head coach Matt Senneca was proud of how his team played throughout the night, despite a plethora of injuries on the squad. Damonte Foreman ran for 140 yards and a score to highlight the Zephyr offense, who surprisingly powered the ball against Freedom’s physical front.

“We got worn down and we’re beat up to begin with, but our kids fought like crazy,” said Senneca. “I thought we played one of our best games up front, as far as coming off the ball and creating lanes for the running back. Just gotta hope we can build on that the next three weeks.”

Whitehall now sets their focus to a matchup with Central Catholic (4-3) this week, as both teams look for an elixir to their recent woes. Whitehall has now lost three straight games and have averaged only 8.6 points per game in those losses. Central has dropped two straight and three out of four games. They’ve been outscored 60-7 the past two weeks.

Senneca didn’t want to talk about all the injuries his team was dealing with last week, but knows there won’t be any sympathy from opponents for their situation.

“Every week is a grind in this league,” he said. “It’s hard to tell where we’re at as a team right now because we have so many people out, but I was really proud of how we fought and that’s what we’re going to have to do moving forward.”