It was only a matter of time before Freedom’s Brady Sutton would find the back of the net and the Patriots would defeat Emmaus, and that time came with 2:13 left and a 1-0 victory over the Hornets on Sept. 19 at Freedom.

“At halftime, I was told to take shots. Take them if they’re on. Challenge the goalkeeper. See what he can do,” said Sutton. “In the second half, that was my goal. I think I had three or four shots, trying to get on target, see if it would go in, and eventually, it did. I was calling for the ball. I could see the open space, and it worked out well.”

Sutton hit the bottom right corner on an assist by Sam Matlock after a pass by Eduardo DeFreitas Pacheco.

“As it came off my foot, I could barely see it go in,” Sutton said. “It’s been familiar for us, scoring late goals. The last two or three years, we’ve had four or five of these where we scored last minute goals and you get everybody celebrating, and it’s great.”

Sutton came close several times in the second half, the last time, hitting the crossbar.

“They’ve had our number the last three years, obviously knocked us out in the district final last year, but I think more importantly, it was us looking for a little bit of proving it to ourselves that we can beat a team like that,” said Freedom coach Tyler Nolan.

Freedom goalkeeper Micah Lawser made 8 saves, including a dive to his left on a one-on-one with an Emmaus striker and a save that was batted behind to the top of the net on an Emmaus corner kick, both in the first half.

“That was intense, just tracking the run and anticipating a cross but then having to readjust,” Lawser said. “There’s so much trust going into our back line. They did a wonderful job, trying to force perfection on them and it was wonderful. We’re locked in. This game, for me, it went by quickly. It’s just that intensity, and then Brady scored, and it was instant relief. We just had to hold them.”

Nolan was hoping that fatigue wouldn’t set in among the Pates for those last two minutes.

“The type of play that Emmaus has, you hope they don’t get some sort of silly chance like a little toe poke-type goal or something like that,” Nolan said. “But credit to Ben (Soleymani) and Logan (Shupp) and Sam (Matlock) and Gavin (Lynch), our back four, and especially Micah (Lawser). They were rock solid all night. The second half, especially, they were fantastic, winning ball after ball. I would say Emmaus had one opportunity and that’s a credit to [our defense], and that’s the way they’ve been all season, which is phenomenal.”

Lawser made two tough saves late in the second half, both from the ground.

An Emmaus free kick late in the first half was headed away by the Patriots, and an earlier corner was cleared away.

Emmaus goalie Will Peck had 6 saves for the Hornets.

“There is a huge respect to Emmaus on this team,” said Lawser, “but at the end of the day, it’s a win, and it’s a big win.”