Freedom’s Louie Pagano advanced to the state golf tournament last week with a fourth place finish at districts last week.

Pagano shot a 79, which was seven strokes behind winner Evan Murphy of Pocono Mountain East and two strokes back of Hunter Probst of Stroudsburg and Nazareth’s Zachary Miller. Pagano was among a group of five golfers who finished with 79s at the Steel Club. Those golfers needed to get through playoff holes in order to advance.

Pagano started with a bogey on hole one, but bounced back with a birdie on two before finishing with a 37 on the front nine. He would shoot a 42 on the back, which included a tough hole 16, a par three in which he carded a seven before ending with back to back pars.

Those pars were critical in advancing.

“He was playing his best round of the year at districts through 15 holes and appeared to be cruising to State College for states,” said head coach Mike Evans. “Then, on 16 he appeared to unravel with a quadruple bogey and dropped outside the cut line temporarily.

“We knew he had to par out on 17 and 18, which he did in amazing fashion. On both of those closing holes he was in the bunkers and managed to make par-saving putts from 30-plus feet on 17 and 14 feet on 18 to put him into a five-player playoff for three spots. He battled through two playoff holes to claim a spot to states.”

For Pagano, it has been all about peaking at the right times.

“The season has been going pretty good so far. Started off a bit rough but settled in and played some good golf especially toward the end of the season,” Pagano said. “It was a goal of mine to make it to districts and was happy to make it there. My mindset going into districts was just to have fun and play my best and knew that if I could put together a good round that I might have a chance to make states.”

Head coach, Mike Evans, couldn’t be happier with Pagano’s efforts.

“A berth to the PIAA Championships could not happen to a more deserving young man,” Evans said. “Louie has worked so hard for the last 3-4 years and has consistently improved over that time. This year he peaked at the perfect time. He has been averaging just above 80 throughout August but he turned the corner in September with a season-best round of 74 at Bethlehem in mid-September and kept the momentum rolling by medaling at the EPC tournament and back-to-back 6th place finishes at the District 11 Qualifier and District 11 Championship.”

Liberty’s Jase Barker and Matt Ronca finished 17th and 18th. Barker shot 85 and Ronca 86. Southern Lehigh won the team title with Nazareth coming in second ahead of EPC champ Northampton. Nick Hoffman of Freedom was 29th shooting 96.

On the girls side, Freedom’s Shayla Ames shot a 105 for 10th. Allie Tarreto of Nazareth shot 85 for the winning girls score. Moravian Academy’s Mara Dubacher shot 78 to take first place in the 2A division. Emma Xu was third for Moravian, shooting 94.

Pagano will now prep for the state tournament.

“Louie has a great disposition for the game,” said Evans. “He doesn’t get too high or too low and has a short memory during the round. That served him wet well on his closing holes last week.”