Good as advertised
MONROEVILLE — In getting Friday night’s WPIAL Class 3A gridiron semifinal underway, Freeport sized up top-seeded Belle Vernon’s offense and saw what all the hype was about.
Unfortunately for the Yellowjackets, their opponent was as good as advertised. Before Freeport could get 10 plays off from scrimmage, it faced a 21-point deficit. It could never gain its footing and bowed to the Leopards, 42-0, at Gateway’s Antimarino Stadium.
“It’s adversity, you have to fight it,” said ‘Jackets running back-defensive back Ben Lane, a 1,000-yard rusher who was limited to 25 yards on the ground on the night. “We didn’t come out as strong as we wanted to. We came out flat. It was hard to come back from that.”
Out of the gate, Freeport opted to kick off and test its strength against an attack that featured junior tailbacks Quinton Martin and Jake Gedekoh, who had combined for nearly 1,500 yards on the ground entering the matchup.
The Leopards began with Gedekoh in the backfield and the highly-touted recruit, Martin, split out wide. Having to account for a pair of capable ball carriers, the ‘Jackets lacked the resources to defend 6-foot-5, 215-pound signal-caller Braden Laux, who took a boot 16 yards to draw first blood.
The ‘Jackets picked up a first down on their first possession, but were forced to punt away.
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