Freedom has played in plenty of big games in their recent football renaissance and this Friday will be another chapter in that book.

The Patriots travel to Emmaus for the biggest clash of the District 11 weekend to take on the Hornets in the 6A semifinals at 7 p.m.

The contest pits the two best teams in the area at it again, and serves as a rematch of last year’s district championship that saw Freedom come away with a 28-14 victory for the district crown.

Following last week’s 38-0 win over Hazleton, the Pates understand they’ll need a more focused performance this week and head coach Jason Roeder made sure to relay that message to his team following their mercy-rule win over the Cougars

“For us coming off the Liberty week, we weren’t quite ourselves at practice all week and we weren’t ourselves in this game either,” said Roeder. “Sometimes we’re a little sluggish coming off all that hoopla of the Liberty game and playing on Saturday. We have a veteran team and we need to understand that we need to come into this week right on Monday.”

Freedom (9-2) jumped ahead to a 24-0 halftime lead over Hazleton, who was playing without their starting quarterback Tyler Wolfe, who suffered a season-ending injury the week before. Pates quarterback Ethan Neidig threw three first half touchdowns to put the Pates ahead comfortably, as they were never threatened in the contest.

Roeder’s critique of their play last week may have come down to the little things, but with the team knowing what was lying ahead with a repeat showdown against Emmaus, and the Liberty hangover, it may have been the perfect storm for the Pates to not be completely dialed in.

That will clearly be a different story this week.

Emmaus (10-1) knocked off Freedom 19-13 in this year’s season opener, when Tylik Jarvis ran for 141-yards. The Freedom defense has certainly played better since that week one contest, as they’ve won eight straight games and have held their opponents to under 14 points or less in seven of those games.

The one thing Freedom may need more of this weekend is through their passing game. Neidig’s three TD performance against Hazleton was a promising sign for Roeder, who knows he’ll need every aspect of his offense to be hitting on all cylinders to knock off the top-seeded Hornets.

“We haven’t leaned on the passing game a lot this year, but we know we have to get better in that department if we want to get to where we want to be,” said Roeder. “I think Ethan showed his prowess throwing the ball and we need those type of performances moving forward if we want to be successful.”

Neidig has thrown for 1,317 yards this season and 10 touchdowns, while Emmaus’ QB Jake Fotta has thrown for 1,904 yards and 22 scores with only two interceptions to his name. Freedom has relied on the legs on running back Jalen Fletcher through their win streak, as he’s compiled 1,230 yards and 20 touchdowns this season. Being able to find a balance on Friday night and hitting big throws at opportune times will be crucial to beat one of the best defensive units in the league.

Emmaus had no trouble taking care of Wilkes-Barre last week, winning 42-14 in their playoff opener. The Hornets built a 35-0 lead at halftime to coast in their win, but there won’t be any coasting this Friday night in a battle between two East Penn Conference heavyweights.

“We know them well and it’s usually rare if we don’t play them twice a year,” said Roeder of Emmaus. “We played them week one and we’re playing them in week 12. It’s going to be a tough football game and we gotta be ready to play well in all aspects of the game and hopefully we’re in a better place than when we were the first time we played them.”