{"id":22031,"date":"2025-11-01T22:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T22:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/22031\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T22:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T22:56:10","slug":"liberty-completes-sweep-of-freedom-advances-to-semis-for-first-time-since-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/22031\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberty completes sweep of Freedom; advances to semis for first time since 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is not easy to beat the same team twice in a season, much less in back-to-back weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially a good football team like Freedom,\u201d Liberty coach Shawn Daignault added Saturday after his team beat the Patriots for the second consecutive week.<\/p>\n

This time it was much more competitive \u2013 26-14 was the final \u2013 and perhaps more important since it kept alive the Hurricanes\u2019 season and ended the Patriots.<\/p>\n

Fourth-seeded Liberty advanced to the district semis for the first time since 2015, shaking off an early 7-0 deficit to score 26 straight points at one point in the District 11 6A quarterfinal before Freedom got a late score.<\/p>\n

\"Liberty'sLiberty\u2019s Gabe Green run with the ball during a District 11 6A quarterfinal contest, on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025, at Bethlehem Area School District Stadium (Jonathan Broady\/Special to The Morning Call)<\/p>\n

Antonio Fontanez threw for 226 yards and three TD passes to three different receivers and ran for another, and Jake Pukszyn made two interceptions as Liberty won an eighth game for the first time in a season since 2015.<\/p>\n

Freedom changed it up after last week\u2019s 42-14 loss to the same opponent on the same field. The Patriots tried to keep the ball on the ground and shorten the game by running down the play clock before snapping the ball. It worked on the first drive \u2013 an 11-play, 78-yard march all on the ground. That ended in a TD run by senior Abraham Pla, who ended his career with his best performance, rushing for 165 yards on 27 carries.<\/p>\n

However, Freedom failed to sustain drives the rest of the way in finishing 5-6.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe anticipated they would try to run it on us because they are a big, strong, physical team and they would want to make it a big, strong, physical game,\u201d Daignault said. \u201cWe thought they would try to win the game at the line of scrimmage and keep our offense off the field and grind the clock out. The first series of the game went well for them, and we got stopped on our first series. and it was like a perfect storm for them. But then they had a muffed punt, which was a big difference-maker because they were right in the game plan they needed to be in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The muffed punt gave Liberty possession at the Freedom 23. Two plays later, the Patriots\u2019 Jaxson Pierson made an interception in the end zone, but it was nullified by a roughing-the-passer penalty. The Hurricanes\u2019 took advantage of the extra opportunities and got a tying touchdown on a Fontanez pass to Pukszyn.<\/p>\n

\"Liberty'sLiberty\u2019s quarterback Antonio Fontanez throws the ball during a District 11 6A quarterfinal contest, on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025, at Bethlehem Area School District Stadium (Jonathan Broady\/Special to The Morning Call)<\/p>\n

The Patriots had a drive stopped on downs at the Liberty 29 and then saw the Hurricanes get back-to-back scores in the final 2:30 of the half with Fontanez running for a TD and finding Jaxon Barlok for another score.<\/p>\n

On its first two possessions of the second half, Freedom reached the Liberty 11 and the 26, but Pukszyn\u2019s leaping interception at the line of scrimmage ended the first threat, and Freedom was stopped on downs on the second one.<\/p>\n

Another Fontanez TD pass \u2013 this one to Zyaire Davis covering 54 yards \u2013 closed Liberty\u2019s scoring in the first play of the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

Freedom fought back for its second score on a Michael Stofanak TD pass to Marquise Chapman, but all hopes of a comeback win by the Patriots were snuffed when Pukszyn got his second interception of the game with 2:14 to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made a couple of key stops in the third quarter when they were moving the ball and pounding us in the run game,\u201d Daignault said.<\/p>\n

As for his key pick in the red zone when Freedom had a chance to get within a score in the third quarter, Pukszyn said: \u201cThe D-line got some pressure and [Stofanak] threw a bad ball, which he usually doesn\u2019t do because he\u2019s a great quarterback. He kind of put it where I could go get it, and i just tried to go get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Liberty'sLiberty\u2019s Jake Pukszyn catches an interception during a District 11 6A quarterfinal contest, on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025, at Bethlehem Area School District Stadium (Jonathan Broady\/Special to The Morning Call)<\/p>\n

Pukszyn, a Lehigh commit who didn\u2019t play football as a freshman and then went through the depths of a 2-8 season as a sophomore in 2023, said it\u2019s exciting to be playing in the semifinals.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiberty hasn\u2019t done this in so long,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing for our school, our community. We\u2019re excited about it. We know Cottingham Stadium is one of the best places to play in PA, so we\u2019re going to take it all in and try to make it a dogfight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two-way lineman Nick Schenkel agreed that Liberty-Easton in the playoffs is something special. Easton is undefeated and ranked sixth in the state in 6A, but the Hurricanes took the Red Rovers to the wire in a 23-20 thriller on Oct 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t go 11-0 and not be great,\u201d Schenkel, a Dartmouth commit, said. \u201cTheir offense has big-play capability or they can chunk the ball. Defensively, they\u2019re phenomenal. We know what they got, but we think we match up with them. We know what we\u2019ve got to do to limit them. We\u2019re just excited to get back on the field at Cottingham. i just want to keep this thing going.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Freedom'sFreedom\u2019s Abraham Pla runs the ball down the field during a District 11 6A quarterfinal contest, on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025, at Bethlehem Area School District Stadium (Jonathan Broady\/Special to The Morning Call)<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, there is no next week for Freedom, which started 0-2 and 1-3, but won four games in a row at one point before dropping its last three.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe played hard and the kids battled, but we just didn\u2019t play well enough,\u201d Patriots coach Jason Roeder said. \u201cThey made plays when we had our chances. We\u2019re not here to keep it close or keep it respectable. We\u2019re trying to win the football game. But we came up short. Our kids brought a great attitude all season. A lot of times, kids hit adversity, and they turn the other way. This team battled on a consistent basis. I just feel bad for them that we came up short.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scoring summary<\/p>\n

Freedom 7 \u2013 0 \u2013 0 \u2013 7 \u2014 14<\/p>\n

Liberty 7 \u2013 13 \u2013 0 \u2014 6 \u2014 26<\/p>\n

FIRST QUARTER<\/p>\n

F: Abraham Pla 4 run (Nathan Stannard kick), 5:37<\/p>\n

L: Jake Pukszyn 7 pass from Antonio Fontanez (Christian Hackett kick), 1:52<\/p>\n

SECOND QUARTER<\/p>\n

L; Antonio Fontanez 5 run (kick faled), 2: 30<\/p>\n

L: Jaxon Barlok 21 pass from Fontanez (Hackett kick), 0:12<\/p>\n

FOURTH QUARTER<\/p>\n

L; Zyaire Davis 54 pass from Fontanez (kick failed), 10:58<\/p>\n

F: Marquise Chapman 10 pass from Michael Stofanak (Stannard kick), 5:43<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is not easy to beat the same team twice in a season, much less in back-to-back weeks.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,304,305,726,432],"class_list":{"0":"post-22031","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news","11":"tag-high-school-football","12":"tag-high-school-sports","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}