If there was a statement win on last week’s high school football docket, Freedom came away with the exclamation point.

The Patriots used a third quarter surge to roll past Nazareth 38-10 in convincing fashion to push themselves to the top of District 11’s football hierarchy.

In a battle of unbeatens at Nazareth’s Andrew S. Leh Stadium, Freedom (4-0) flipped a halftime tie to a flurry of big plays to knockout the defending district champs on their home turf.

“To beat them here is a huge victory,” said head coach Jason Roeder. “We’ll learn from it and there’s fixable mistakes and we’ll continue to get better because that has to happen if we want to get to where we want to be at the end of the season.”

With the game tied at 10-10 going into halftime, it appeared the showdown between the two top-ranked teams in the area would go down to the wire, but Freedom exploded with four unanswered touchdowns in the second half, three of which came in a two minute span in the third quarter to knock Nazareth (3-1) down and out for good.

Chase Walker threw three touchdowns on the night for the Pates, but two of them came in the third when he found Amare DuBoise for a 14-yard strike with 6:55 to go in the quarter to put them ahead 17-10. On the next possession, Walker hit Shacre Colwell for a 65-yard strike just over a minute later. With Nazareth trying to catch their breath on their ensuing drive, quarterback Peyton Falzone was picked off by DuBoise for a 33-yard pick six to give the Pates a 31-10 cushion in front of a stunned Nazareth crowd.

Limiting big plays by Nazareth was the key for Freedom coming into the week, instead it was the Pates that came away with all of them in week four.

“It works two ways, our offense took advantage and capitalized and made some explosive plays,” Roeder said. “We found some matchups that we liked and the kids executed. On defense, their quarterback makes you hold your breath on every play, but I was happy with the way we hustled and tackled.”

DuBoise had a big night with his aforementioned two scored, but also added a third touchdown in the first half, hauling in an 11-yard touchdown in the second quarter. Walker finished 8-of-18 for 221 yards and three touchdowns to go along with an interception and running back Aaron Beete continued to showcase his talent rushing for 166 yards and a score from 31 yards out in the fourth quarter.

Freedom kept Falzone under wraps for most of the night, as he completed 14-of-32 passes for 143 yards and a touchdown, as well as the pick six interception.

“Every week is a new week and you get new circumstances that you haven’t seen before,” said Roeder. “You hope that your culture is such that you can handle it when it happens.”

The Pates host Allen (2-2) this Friday night at BASD Stadium.