BUFFALO TWP — Backed by two special teams touchdowns and a conservative, well balanced offensive attack, Freeport (9-1,5-1) defeated Deer Lakes (4-6,2-3) Friday night, 42-10, to secure a WPIAL Class 3A Allegheny 6 Conference title at Freeport High School..

“Its been seven years since we had a championship in the section,” Freeport coach John Gaillot said. “I’m very proud of the guys for that.”

Ben Lane started the scoring off for the Yellowjackets halfway through the first quarter with a 20-yard touchdown run.

That was followed up three minutes later with a heads up play by Zach Clark, who scooped up a shanked Deer Lakes punt and returned it 35-yards for a Freeport score.

“We did very well in that part of the game,” Gaillot said of his teams special teams effort. “Still some mistakes and personal fouls that we need to clean up.”

The run game was working early on for Deer Lakes, which in turn was keeping the Freeport offense on the sideline, but whenever they got things going, the Lancers were hit with an endless stream of penalties.

“We had penalties at key moments,” Deer Lakes coach Tim Burk said. “At the end of the day, I was afraid of us coming in too relaxed because we are thinking about next week knowing that this game really didn’t matter. But our boys came to compete.”

Gavin Croney and Ben Lane scored the next two Yellowjacket touchdown, followed by the second special teams score when Colton Otterman blocked a punt deep in Deer Lakes territory, which was picked up by Parker Lucas for the score.

“We can’t have two blocked punts,” Burk said. “One was shanked and those can be tide turners.”

Deer Lakes finally got points on the board late in the third quarter off a 25-yard field goal by Mason Metzler.

Second team players for both teams entered the game around the start of the fourth quarter, and Drew Ross for Freeport wasted no time as he marched the Yellowjackets down the field and capped off the drive with a touchdown pass to Dean Furer.

Deer Lakes scored with 18 seconds left in the game as a formality, as Freeport was then able to secure the 32-point victory.

“(Freeport) is small, but they are gritty,” Burk said. “They execute very well. Hats off to them and we just got to go get ready for next week.”

Deer Lakes knows they will be on the road next week, while Freeport will either host a playoff game as section champions, or might get lucky and find themselves on a bye.

“I think we deserve a bye,” Brady Stivenson said. “Mostly based off the teams we’ve played and the difference of scores, but I love playing, so I wouldn’t mind not having a bye, to be honest.”

Deer Lakes 0 0 3 7 – 10

Freeport 14 7 14 7 – 42

First Quarter

F – Ben Lane 20 run (Isaac Wetzel kick), 6:03

F – Zach Clark 35 punt return (Wetzel kick), 2:45

Second Quarter

F – Gavin Croney 3 run (Wetzel kick), 8:46

Third Quarter

F – Lane 4 run (Wetzel kick), 10:10

F – Parker Lucas 3 punt return (Wetzel kick), 7:25

D – Mason Metzler 25 field goal 2:23

Fourth Quarter

F – Dean Furer 2 pass from Drew Ross (Wetzel kick), 5:41

D – Brayden Mccoy 14 pass from Jake Fleischer (Metzler kick), :18

Individual Statistics

Rushing: Deer Lakes, Zier Williams 11-38, Derek Burk 8-4, Aiden Detman 4-19, Ryan Love 8-38. Freeport, Gavin Croney 6-9, Ben Lane 7-65, Zach Clark 2-34, Dawson Gaillot 3-11, Sean Selinger 1-8.

Passing: Deer Lakes, Derek Burk 5-16-33-1, Jake Fleischer 6-12-73-0. Freeport, Gavin Croney 6-8-84-1, Drew Ross 2-3-47-0, Sean Selinger 0-2-0-0.

Receiving: Deer Lakes, Ryan Cochran 1-8, Zier Williams 1-0, Wayne Love 1-5, Aiden Fletcher 1-14, Conner Walker, 1-6, Blake Gornick 2-39, Brayden Mccoy 4-35. Freeport, Brady Stivenson 3-61, Lucas Parker 2-16, Ben Lane 1-7, Carson Kane 1-45, Dean Furer 1-2.