It was like any other Liberty-Freedom rivalry contest, where the passion from both sides of the stadium was felt for 48 minutes. Ultimately, it was the Patriots muscle up front that determined the outcome last Saturday afternoon at BASD Stadium, as Freedom overcame a 13-7 halftime deficit to over power Liberty 28-13.

The win was the sixth-straight for the Pates (8-2) this season, as they clinched the third-seed in this week’s District 11 6A tournament to host Easton at home Friday night. After falling behind at halftime, head coach Jason Roeder knew the message for the team was simple going into intermission.

“I thought we had to play with a little more urgency and that’s what we told the kids at halftime,” said Roeder. “I was happy with the way we responded in the second half. The kids showed a lot of character and maturity with how they came back. I’ve been in 16 of these games now and they’re amazing. I’ve been on both ends of these, so to come out of here with a win for our community is great. You can’t come to this game and not realize what it means to our city and schools.”

Liberty took the lead and momentum in the first half thanks to their special teams and a miscue by Freedom’s unit.

Karim Brice returned a punt 75-yards for a touchdown to start the second quarter to pull Liberty within 7-6, but the ‘Canes took the lead going into half when a negative yardage punt by the Pates set up Liberty at the Freedom six yard line.

Kyndred Wright scored from a yard out with 2:12 to go in the quarter to make it 13-7, but that was the closest the Hurricanes would get from scoring the rest of the way.

Freedom quarterback Brian Taylor took over in the second half to make sure it wasn’t going to be a memorable upset for Liberty.

He hit Ethan Neidig on a 24-yard TD pass to open the third quarter at the 9:24 mark to push Freedom ahead 14-13 following the PAT. He then added TD runs of 7 and 24 yards to ice the game. Taylor finished the afternoon with 85 yards on the ground and four total touchdowns (three rushing, one passing). Deante Crawford added 153 yards on 33 carries on the day, as the Pates dominant offensive line wore down Liberty in the second half.

“A big part of the adjustment at halftime was letting Brian run the ball more,” Roeder said. “We felt we could wear down up front over four quarters. I’m happy and proud our guys were able to do that.”

For Liberty (1-9), ending the season on a nine-game losing streak wasn’t ideal, but the Hurricanes competed and showed steps of progress in Daignault’s rookie season.

“It’s tough to lose this and to see these seniors leave with a loss,” said Daignault. “I was proud of the effort they gave this year, because these kids played their butts off every week. That’s something that bodes well for us in the future. I just think teams were able to physically impose their will on us in the second half and that’s something we need to work on in the weight room over the winter.”

Freedom now has to prepare for a tough matchup with Easton (5-3) this week, in what will be the second meeting of the season between both squads.

The Pates beat the Rovers 31-17 in week three, but Easton finished the season winning four out of their last five games, dropping their week 10 rivalry with Nazareth 16-9.

“We talk about controlling what we can control and we’re ready for anyone at this point of the season,” said Roeder. “There’s still things we have to clean up and we’ll work on that over the course of the week, but we know every game from here on out is going to be tough.”

Bethlehem Catholic (2-7) saw their season come to an end last Friday night, as they fell to Central Catholic 17-7 in the Holy War.

The Hawks finished the season on a four-game losing streak, but had a shot at qualifying for the District 11 4A tournament with a win over Central.

Unfortunately, they fell behind by two scores in the first quarter, as the Vikings returned a block for a score, followed by an 18-yard TD run by Travis Foster. Jared Richardson added a second quarter rushing score for the only TD on the night for Becahi.