It wasn’t pretty for Emmaus and Freedom last Friday night, but ultimately the Green Hornets made the night their masterpiece on the opening night of the high school football season.

Emmaus parlayed a momentum changing touchdown before halftime into the second half, eventually wearing down the Patriots in the second half en route to a 19-13 victory at BASD Stadium.

The win was a dose of revenge for Emmaus (1-0) after losing to Freedom in last year’s district championship, but it also proved to be a learning lesson for head coach Jason Roeder and his Freedom players.

“We understand it’s only week one, but it’s disappointing and tough to not get that gratification after working all summer toward this game,” said Roeder. “We got to continue to find the guys and the rotations that are going to work. We’re going to keep evaluating things every day, but clearly we still have work to do.”

Emmaus jumped out quickly to a 7-0 lead when Jake Fotta threw a 60-uard touchdown to Dylan Darville on their opening series of the contest. However, Freedom settled in and then scored twice in the second quarter, with the first coming with 11:52 in the period when quarterback Ethan Neidig tossed a seven-yard TD to Connor Stofanak to make it 7-6 following a blocked extra point. They followed that with a 61-yard TD run by Jalen Fletcher with 7:33 left in the first half to pull ahead 13-7, as the Freedom looked to be gaining control of the game.

However, with just over two minutes left before halftime, Freedom (0-1) failed to convert on 4th-and-long inside Emmaus territory, giving the Hornets a possession at their 34-yard line.

Emmaus used an up-tempo approach to move the ball 66-yards on six plays, capped off by Fotta diving in for a score with 11 seconds remaining. That extra point was blocked as well to send the game tied at 13 into halftime, but the late score was a punch to the stomach for the Pates.

“We probably should have punted there,” said Roeder of the decision to go for it late in the second quarter. “We had a look that we liked on that fourth down play, but in hindsight I should have punted.”

Freedom’s offense sputtered in the second half, starting with a pair of three-and-outs to open the third quarter. Emmaus took over from the Freedom 44-yard line late in the third quarter and ultimately used the field position to take the lead.

The Hornets ran off 11 plays and got the go-ahead score when quarterback Josiah Williams cashed in from a yard out to put Emmaus ahead 19-13 with 7:58 left in the fourth quarter.

Freedom would stall on their series in Emmaus territory and the Hornets would then lean on them in the closing minutes with their run game, eating up five minutes off the clock before punting back to the Pates with 50 seconds left and the ball at the Patriot 10-yard line.

It was too little too late and disappointing ending for the team after all the work going into a big season opener.

“We just got to get better at everything,” Roeder said. “I know that’s a generic answer, but we have a lot of work to do to correct the things that went wrong and only we can do that.”

The Pates now look to rebound this Friday when they travel to Easton (0-1) to take on a Rovers squad that was embarrassed by Parkland last week during a 42-0 defeat.