In a season that has started unlike any other in Jason Roeder’s 21-year career as the Freedom football coach, it looked like another bizarre sequence of events could lead to another disappointing outcome Saturday night at J. Birney Crum Stadium
The Patriots, leading 24-21 at the time, were hit with two personal foul penalties on a series in the third quarter, and there was a mixup on what down it was. Even the chain gang appeared to be confused.
Freedom thought it was third down instead of fourth and went for it on what turned out to be fourth-and-29 from its own 12.
Lashawn Johnson got 10 yards on the carry, but Allentown Central Catholic took over at the Patriots’ 22 and battled through a holding penalty to get a 25-yard touchdown pass from Patrick Cahill to Di’Quawn Leak. After missing the PAT kick, Central Catholic had a 27-24 lead with 4:55 left in the third quarter.
At that point, however, Freedom seemed to say enough is enough.
Johnson, who finished with 210 yards on 31 carries, scored on a 14-yard run to give the Patriots the lead with 11:15 left and then extended the lead with a 64-yard dash into the end zone with 7:40 to go.
Freedom stopped Central Catholic on downs with 4:36 left, and then ran out the clock on a much-needed 38-27 victory.
It was Freedom’s first win of the season after the Patriots began 0-2 for the first time in Roeder’s career. The Vikings, who were playing their home opener on Wall of Fame Night, fell to 1-2, with the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference schedule set to begin next weekend.
“It was obviously turbulent there for a little while,” Roeder said. “We challenged the kids a little bit at halftime. The self-inflicted wounds were hurting us. We’ve to get that cleaned. But even through the first two weeks, we saw some good things. It’s just a matter of putting in all together.”
Asked about the confusion on which down it was, Roeder said: “There was miscommunication, yes, but at the end of the day, that’s on me. I will look at the tape at some of the penalties and see what our guys saw.”
As it turned out, the gift touchdown didn’t matter because Freedom was able to ride its solid offensive line and Johnson’s hard running to victory.
Johnson, a 6-foot-1, 200-pound junior who ran for 78 yards in the 47-7 season-opening loss to Downingtown West and 119 in an 18-7 defeat at Parkland, had his biggest night in following in the footsteps of past star rushers such as Jalen Stewart, Deante Crawford, Noah Pierre and Aaron Beete.
“It was just two weeks, and the first game we kind of got blown out, but in the second game we stayed together and came close at Parkland,” Johnson said. “We never lost confidence. We just stayed together.”
Besides his three rushing touchdowns from scrimmage, Johnson also scored on a 90-yard kickoff return.
“I got the ball, I was patient, and I just hit the hole,” Johnson said of the return that gave Freedom a 17-7 lead before it was followed by a kickoff return for a TD by Central’s Tahir Edmondson.
“That was my first one, and it felt great,” Johnson added. “We knew we had to depend on somebody, and I just stepped up to be that person. We’ve just got to stay together and do us. We’re still a good football team.”
Stofanak had his best day as Freedom’s starting quarterback. The junior threw for a combined 160 yards in the first two games, but completed 9 of 11 passes for 139 yards against ACCHS and also ran for 35 yards.
“We were working all week; we were waiting for it,” Stofanak said. “After two losses, it’s hard, but we stayed strong in the locker room and on the field. Our run game with our big guys up front, we feel like we can do whatever we want. Lashawn is great in the backfield, and our receivers do what they do best, and I try to put the ball where they can get it, and they make plays.”
While the win provided some relief for a Freedom program not accustomed to being under .500, Roeder said there’s still a long way to go.
“Not everything was broke when we were losing, and obviously not everything is right now that we got a win,” he said. “It’s nice to go back to work and fix some things after we got a win. Our kids really work hard. The mistakes we’ve been making were not because of a lack of effort or a bad attitude, or anything like that. We’ve got really good kids, and I’m happy for them. It’s good to see them smile.”
Freedom hosts Nazareth in its EPC opener Friday night and Allentown Central Catholic visits Pocono Mountain East.
Central’s new Wall of Fame inductees included former volleyball and basketball standout Emily (Guman) Brucker, former football players Colin McDermott and Tad McNeely, and ex-swimming standout Sydney Stinner.
Scoring summary
Freedom 7 – 17 – 0 – 14 — 38
ACCHS 0 – 21 – 6 – 0 — 27
FIRST QUARTER
F: Aidan D’Andrea 31 pass from Michael Stofanak (Nathan Stannard kick), 1:53
SECOND QUARTER
F: Stannard 35 field goal, 6:02
CC: Di’Quawn Leak 48 pass from Patrick Cahill (Bryson Baker kick), 4:46
F: Lashawn Johnson 90 kickoff return (Stannard kick), 4:33
CC: Tahir Edmondson 85 kickoff return (Baker kick), 4:18
F: Lashawn Johnson 1 run (Stannard kick), 1:47
CC: Edmondson 10 pass from Cahill (Baker kick), 0:08
THIRD QUARTER
CC: Leak 25 pass from Cahill (kick failed) 4:55
FOURTH QUARTER
F: Johnson 14 run (Stannard kick), 11:15
F: Johnson 64 run (Stannard kick), 7:40
Around the EPC
With the league games set to start — beginning with Pleasant Valley at Parkland on Thursday night — there are seven undefeated teams left in the EPC.
Three of them — Parkland, Nazareth and Easton — are somewhat expected.
Two of them, Bethlehem Catholic and Pocono Mountain West, are mild surprises.
The other two, Allen and Pocono Mountain East, are big surprises. Canaries began 2-0 last year and then lost seven straight before beating Dieruff in the regular-season finale. They haven’t won more than three games in a season since 2005.
The Cardinals are coming off a 1-10 season and haven’t won more than three games in a season since 2019.
Stat stuff
Parkland’s Finn Coen looks to pass the ball Friday Aug. 29, 2025, against Freedom at Orefield Middle School. The Trojans won the game 18-7 and are 2-0 and ranked fourth in the state in Class 6A. (Amy Shortell/The Morning Call)
Parkland junior quarterback Finn Coen had the biggest day of his career in the Trojans’ 35-27 win over Northampton. Coen, the son of the late Andy Coen, who was Lehigh University’s coach for 13 seasons, completed eight of 19 passes for 155 yards and three touchdowns — two of them to Nassim Adams, including a 72-yarder. Coen also carried 10 times for 102 yards.
Liberty senior Jake Pukszyn set a school record with six catches for 160 yards and scored five touchdowns in the Hurricanes’ 49-17 win over Stroudsburg.
Nazareth quarterback Peyton Falzone threw for three TDs and ran for another in his team’s 30-20 win over Wilson West Lawn. He has now thrown for 833 yards and nine TDs this season while completing 50 of 76 pass attempts. He has also run for 174 yards and five scores.
New Executive Education High School new head coach Kyle Haas practices Friday Aug. 8, 2025, in Allentown. (Jane Therese/Special to The Morning Call)
Former Northampton and Bethlehem Catholic coach Kyle Haas got his first victory at Executive Education as the Raptors whipped Central Columbia 48-8 Saturday night at Muhlenberg. Haas is pleased with the play of quarterback Tez Whitsitt, who has thrown for 576 yards and three TDs in three games while running for 125 yards and four scores. The team’s top receiver is Dexter Connor, who has 12 catches for 330 yards and a TD.
