It’s never easy to defend a district championship and Freedom had to work till the final buzzer to come home with their second straight District 11 3A lacrosse crown last week.

The Pates (17-3) got a boost with the return of Jake Ballerini and Antonio Solivan’s four goal performance helped propel Freedom to a 9-7 victory over Parkland (17-4) in a battle of the top-seeded teams in the tournament.

After winning their first title last season, Freedom was able to savor this championship a little more.

“This year was definitely special,” said head coach Tony Fabrizio. “Last year, I don’t think we took the time to appreciate the moment. This year, I think we were able to. It was a much tougher game this year, kind of what we were expecting last year.”

Freedom may have been the second-seed in districts, but wasn’t necessarily looked at as the odds on favorite to win, despite being champions last year with a seasoned lineup.

The Pates lost to Parkland 12-8 during the regular season, dropped their EPC playoff opener to Easton and then squeaked out an 8-7 overtime win over Delaware Valley in the district semifinals.

“I think we were a little bit of an underdog going into the championship game,” Fabrizio said. “We lost a huge part of our offense when Jake Ballerini got injured in the middle of the season. He was able to finally able to play in the district final and his presence on the field lifted our spirits tremendously. The coaching staff put in hours of work to get us ready for the district playoffs. We knew we could win and wanted to make sure we were well prepared.”

Parkland led 3-1 after the first quarter, but the game was tied at halftime 5-5 and saw a 7-7 draw heading to the fourth.

Solivan’s go-ahead goal with 5:16 left in the game put Freedom on top for good and Jared Karabinus scored his second goal with 3:43 left to cement the title. Ryan Hathaway recorded 13 saves on the night.

After taking over the program eight years ago, head coach Tony Fabrizio has built a stable contender that has now claimed supremacy in back-to-back seasons.

“I knew taking over this program that they could be successful,” Fabrizio said. “It’s been amazing to see the program grow every year. Being back-to-back district champions is pretty incredible. I wanted us to be looked at as one of the top tier schools in the area. I think we’ve been able to prove we belong in that discussion.”

Freedom and Parkland both advance to the PIAA tournament, which gets underway June 6th. The Pates will take on the fourth-place finisher from District One.

Fabrizio hopes his team learned from last year’s state tournament to help keep their season alive longer.

“State playoffs were completely new to me last year,” he said. “We were able to learn that no lead is safe in the state tournament. We’ve grown a lot since then, so it’ll be fun to get back there this year.”