Deante Crawford bounced through the Freedom students who waited to greet players as they came off the field.
“He’s all full of energy,” Patriots football coach Jason Roeder said pointing to the senior tailback. “If there’s one guy that can do it, it’s him.”
Roeder was referring to the 40-plus carries Crawford toted while helping the sixth-ranked Patriots to a 38-21 victory over No. 3 Nazareth in an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference South Division contest at Andrew S. Leh Stadium.
Crawford, unofficially, carried the ball 46 times for 201 yards and four touchdowns.
“I feel great,” the senior said. “I want to thank my O-linemen for doing their job. If they’re doing their job, I can do mine. Coming into this game, we knew it was going to be a dogfight. We just had to work hard.”
Roeder admitted that, ideally, the tailback wouldn’t shoulder as much of the load, but Crawford kept answering the call as Freedom (3-2 overall, 2-2 division) took over the game with 24 straight points in the second half.
The Patriots faced fourth-and-1 on their own 23-yard line during the opening possession of the third quarter with the score knotted 14-14. Freedom kept its offense on the field and Crawford earned a first down with an 8-yard run.
Ultimately, the visitors used 14 plays to go 86 yards in 5 minutes and 29 seconds. Crawford’s 3-yard TD gave Freedom a lead that it held for the rest of the night.
“They punched us right in the mouth with that first drive (of the second half) and that set the tone for them,” Nazareth coach Tom Falzone said. “Credit to them. But, we’ve got to be able to respond. We’ve been able to do that the last two weeks, we didn’t have the response – to take it down and put some points on the board – until it was too late.”
Takeaways for days
Nazareth’s first offensive series of the second half ended after two plays as junior Connor Stofanak intercepted a pass at the Freedom 40. Patriots junior kicker Zeyad Ragab ended the ensuing possession with a 25-yard field goal, pushing the advantage to 24-14 with 2:20 to go in the third quarter.
The Blue Eagles (3-2, 1-2) advanced to Freedom’s 37-yard line on the next drive, but quarterback Sonny Sasso has hit from behind and the ball was knocked into the hands of Patriots junior linebacker Kyle Johnson.
Six plays later, Freedom celebrated in the end zone after Crawford’s 13-yard touchdown expanded the lead to 31-14 with 10:15 left in the fourth quarter.
“We need that to win games,” Roeder said about forcing turnovers. “We didn’t get that last week ... We were minus-4 coming into this thing and Freedom doesn’t win games that way. We knew we needed to protect the football better and take it away a little more. We were able to do that tonight.”
The takeaways kept on coming for the Pates. Nazareth managed just three plays on its next two drives, which ended on a fumble recovery by Freedom senior Lorenzo Feliciano and an interception by junior Ethan Neidig – giving the Blue Eagles four straight possessions ending in turnovers (five overall).
“You’re not going to beat anybody with five turnovers,” Falzone said. “We basically played hard for a half, then came out and made those mistakes. We gave them the ball on a short field. Our defense seemed like it was on the field forever in the second half. That’s the difference. We’ve got to clean that up, regroup and get back at it again.”
Crawford’s final carry of the evening, a 6-yard touchdown run, put Freedom ahead 38-14 and propelled him past the 200-yard mark.
Extra juice?
The Pates also got the plays they needed from the passing game as senior quarterback Brian Taylor went 7-for-10 with 190 yards and a touchdown.
Taylor, who played his youth football in the Nazareth feeder system, was ruled ineligible prior to Freedom’s meeting with Nazareth last year. Neither coach nor player indicated that there was extra motivation going into Friday’s game at Andrew S. Leh Stadium.
“If he did, we didn’t talk about it,” Roeder said about Taylor having extra emotion to play Nazareth. “... Chances are, we’ll see them again, so it was about winning a football game tonight.”
“It’s just another game,” Taylor said. “We came out here and handled our business. It’s not really anything special.”
Taylor was more concerned about getting the offense on track after scoring 15 points in a loss to Parkland last week.
“The last few weeks we were a little slow on offense and our defense was playing great,” the senior QB said. “Defensively, we were great again tonight and our offense, I think, lit a fire under its (butt) and is starting to go.”
Taylor’s passing touchdown was a 28-yard connection to Neidig on fourth-and-16 in the first period. The two players competed for the QB spot in the preseason, but still have developed a quarterback-receiver chemistry.
“He’s a great kid. We’ve got a great connection,” Taylor said. “I love the kid. Making plays out here, it’s really cool to be able to connect with him at receiver.”
Turning the page
Nazareth’s offense was paced by senior running back Tyler Rohn, who took 25 carries for 109 yards and two touchdowns.
“He ran hard,” Falzone said. “We started three sophomores tonight on the line. That was a change-up for us. But, we’re growing and we’re continuing to try to get better.”
The Blue Eagles have a Saturday contest at Liberty next.
Freedom will try to build on its momentum when it hosts Allentown Central Catholic.
“I think we were more consistent tonight than we’ve been, but there are more steps that we’ve got to take,” Roeder said. “When we do limit mistakes, when we’re physical, we have a chance to be a pretty good football team.”
Showing support
Fans of Freedom and Nazareth, including both student sections, wore orange on Friday night to show support for 2021 Blue Eagles graduate Cade Lutz, who was recently diagnosed with leukemia.
Orange is the color associated with leukemia awareness and the unified display illustrated the effort to rally around the Lutz family.
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Kyle Craig may be reached at kcraig@lehighvalleylive.com.
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