The upcoming District 11 football playoffs will, as usual, feature their share of rematches.
East Stroudsburg South-Whitehall, Pleasant Valley-Pocono Mountain East and Northampton-Nazareth are a few of the slated matchups that have happened already during the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference regular season.
In the case of those pairings, there will have been weeks in between meeting No. 1 and No. 2.
But in the case of Liberty and Freedom, it’s going to be a matter of days.
The Hurricanes put together one of their best performances of the season and rolled to a 42-14 win over Freedom on Saturday afternoon at Bethlehem Area School District Stadium, and in so doing, won the Christmas City title and snapped a six-game losing streak in the Bethlehem public school rivalry.
The 42 points were the most Liberty has scored against Freedom since a 48-14 win in 2006.
And their reward for all of this good stuff? Another meeting at BASD Stadium in the 6A quarterfinals, which is expected to be played on Friday night, along with all of the other 6A games.
Having to play Freedom again was the least of the Hurricanes worries as they lingered on the field and celebrated a victory over the Patriots for the first time since a 29-10 win in 2018.
In 2018, the teams had to meet again in districts the following week, and Freedom turned the tables, 14-7, en route to the program’s first District 11 title.
Patriots coach Jason Roeder and his staff are going to have a lot of work to do if they are going to flip the script this time because Liberty’s high-flying offense, triggered by quarterback Antonio Fontanez, looked unstoppable at times on Saturday.
Fontanez set a single-game Liberty passing record by throwing for 382 yards; the previous mark was Doug Erney’s 358 against Nazareth in 2014. The 6-foot, 180-pound senior threw four TD passes — three to Zyaire Davis and one to Jake Pukszyn — and also ran for a score.
Pukszyn and Davis combined for 15 catches for 203 yards. Each of them also had an interception on defense.
Fontanez began his career as a freshman at Liberty, then spent a year at Allentown Central Catholic before coming back for his last two years as a Hurricane. He now has 64 TD passes and 6,355 yards in his career.
“It feels great, and not just because of the performance but because we all came together for this cross-town rivalry,” Fontanez said. “Coming into the season, no one knew our offensive line would be good, and everyone doubted them. But after the loss to Pennridge [in the season opener], they really came around and have done a great job.”
Pukszyn, who recently committed to continuing his career at Lehigh, said: “We haven’t beaten Freedom since 2018, so no one in our school has done it before, and that makes this extra special. The whole school is going to be talking about this, but we’ve just got to keep moving on.”
As for Fontanez, who found him on Liberty’s third play from scrimmage for a 48-yard score, Pukszyn said: “He’s a special player and we just love to have him on our team. I am hyped to play [Freedom] again. Obviously we can build off this one and just keep getting better.”
Liberty coach Shawn Daignault had not beaten Freedom in his previous four seasons in charge of the Hurricanes. So, the victory was especially a memorable one for him.
“The kids made a statement,” he said. “It’s not about me. I’m just so proud of the kids, and this one is for them, and for our school and our community. This win is even more than that. All of these guys who have been with me over the last five years, even the guys who didn’t get to experience this over the last five years, they should enjoy this, too, because they built the foundation.”
Liberty now leads the all-time series 35-24. The Hurricanes finished the regular season at 7-3 overall and 5-2 in league play. Freedom fell to 5-5 and 4-3.
The Patriots are a banged up team that played without star running back Lashawn Johnson and then had a key defensive back ejected during the game, meaning that player will also be out next week. But Daignault said he expects a good game Friday night.
“This is the first time I’m doing this; playing the same team back to back,” Daignault said. “We need to watch the film and see what we did well and what we want to continue to do and think about where we can give some different looks on both sides of the ball. And also we may try to anticipate what they may try to do differently. There’s a lot that’s going to go into this second game. It’s going to be interesting.”
Scoring summary
Liberty 13 – 14 – 8 – 7 — 42
Freedom 7 – 0 – 7 – 0 — 14
FIRST QUARTER
L: Jake Pukszyn 48 pass from Antonio Fontanez (kick failed), 11:07
L: Pukszyn 12 pass from Fontanez (Christian Hackett kick), 7:56
F: Davyan Moore 53 pass from Michael Stofanak (Nate Stannard kick), 6:26
SECOND QUARTER
L: Zyaire Davis 43 pass from Fontanez (Hackett kick), 8:56
L: Fontanez 8 run (Hackett kick), 4:25
THIRD QUARTER
F: Jahaire Hughes 6 run (Stannard kick), 5:33
L: Davis 26 pass from Fontanez (Pukszyn pass from Fontanez, 2:54
FOURTH QUARTER
L: Adriaan Deleon 16 run (Hackett kick), 11:21
Individual stats
RUSHING
Liberty (29 for 126): Gabe Green 17-75; Adriaan Deleon 5-43; Antonio Fonttanez 5-17; Christian Contakes 2-(-9).
Freedom (35 for 104): Abraham Pla 19-46; Jahaire Hughes 7-41; Michael Stofanak 9-17.
PASSING
Liberty: Fontanez 23-32-0, 382 yards, 4 TDs.
Freedom: Stofanak 11-20-3, 168 yards, TD.
RECEIVING
Liberty: Jake Pukszyn 10-184, TD; Zyaire Davis 5-119, 3 TDs; Jaxon Barlok 4-28; Gabe Green 2-35; William Reese 1-9; Adriaan Deleon 1-7.
Freedom: Davyan Moore 4-115, TD; Jaxson Pierson 3-29; Jacob Hauze 2-13; Abraham Pla 1-8; Brian Renshaw 1-4.
Freedom’s Micheal Stofanak throws a pass Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025, against Liberty at Bethlehem Area School District Stadium. (Amy Shortell/The Morning Call)
Liberty’s Jacob Puksyn scores Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025, against Freedom at Bethlehem Area School District Stadium.(Amy Shortell/The Morning Call)
Liberty’s Zyaire Davis runs the ball down the field Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025, against Freedom at Bethlehem Area School District Stadium.(Amy Shortell/The Morning Call)
Liberty’s Gabriel Greene runs the ball down the field Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025, against Freedom at Bethlehem Area School District Stadium. (Amy Shortell/The Morning Call)
Freedom’s Geovanny Ledee runs the ball down the field Saturday,Oct.25, 2025, against Liberty at Bethlehem School District Stadium.(Amy Shortell/The Morning Call)
Freedom’s Michael Stofanak snaps the ball Saturday, Oct.25, 2025, against Liberty at Bethlehem School District Stadium.(Amy Shortell/The Morning Call)
Originally Published: October 25, 2025 at 7:02 PM EDT