#6 Easton (7-3) at #3 Freedom (9-1)
Easton
Record: 7-3 (t-3rd Place, EPC South)
District/Subregional Championships: 7 (1990, 1991, 1993, 2003, 2004, 2009, 2010)
All Time Playoff Record: 24-13
All State Candidates: Nysir Minney-Gratz, David Simmons
All Conference Selections: Ryan Greene (C/DT), Nysir Minney-Gratz (RB), Corey Deemer (LB), Craig Stahlecker (OT/DT), David Simmons (DE)
The Red Rovers are in the subregional playoffs for the sixteenth time in seventeen years, and it is their 21st D11 postseason appearance since 1988. This is lowest Easton has ever been seeded in the subregional tournament, joining the 2007 squad who was also the 6 seed (and lost a 36-29 thriller to Hazleton in overtime). Easton is 5-8 all time on the road in district/subregional playoff games (as compared to19-5 at home) and barring bracket chaos, they will be away from Cottingham the rest of the way.
Easton is averaging 38.7 points per game, almost entirely driven by their rushing attack. The Red Rovers are on pace to attempt their fewest passes since 2005, and they’ve thrown the most interceptions as a program since as least 1999 (the farthest back I can find INTs). They also will be trotting out backup quarterback Ben Nimeh for the third week in a row, as senior captain and starter Trey Durrah appears to be out for the year with a knee injury suffered against Liberty.
The running game has been an obvious strength. Running back Nysir Minney-Gratz is fifth in the state with 1,710 rushing yards, 469 effort yards in the regular season finale against Nazareth. Minney-Gratz broke the Easton single game record (set in 1991 by Juan Gaddy) by 155 yards and the D11 record (set in 1998 by Whitehall’s Nick Kurtz) by 43 yards. With that effort, he moved from 11th to 5th on the Easton single season rushing list, and is one of five backs in school history with a 1,700+ yard season (Shane Simpson, Juan Gaddy, Brad Piperata, and Eric Thompson). Three of the four backs ahead of him set their marks aided by trips to the Eastern Finals and Minney-Gratz has the most yards in school history through ten games.
But that big effort came at a cost. It was reported Tuesday that Minney-Gratz is questionable for Friday night with a leg injury. This would be the fourth time in the last five years that Easton would be without their leading rusher in the playoffs. This is particularly crippling, because for the first time since 1997, Easton does not have multiple running backs with at least 600 yards. Heck, going back to the 1950s with Pete Americus and Bill Houston, Easton usually splits carries among two backs with varied skill sets (the old Mr. Inside/Mr. Outside idea) This year, Minney-Gratz has 204 carries, nobody else has more than 35.
To make matters worse, second on the depth chart is Katrell Thompson, who has missed the last two weeks with a concussion and isn’t expected back. That leaves Easton with senior fullback Isaiah Walker and freshman tailback Gernard Finney as your likely backfield against Freedom. Finney ran for 76 yards and a touchdown against Whitehall, has been covering kicks on special teams and is just one of five freshmen to play varsity football for Steve Shiffert. He is very highly regarded, but at 5’6 160 pounds and 14 years old, just doesn’t have the physical maturity yet to handle being an every down back.
Whoever gets the carries on Friday, they’ll be running behind an undersized but athletic offensive line. Though they average just 211 pounds across, and the biggest guy is ten pounds lighter than the smallest lineman at Wyoming Valley West, they’ve paved the way for 2,680 yards by Easton ballcarriers this year. They take advantage of their quickness and mobility advantage by running lots of sweeps to get everybody in motion and the group is extremely well coached and technically sound.
Defensively, Easton gives up 16.2 points per game, a number that shot way up in last week’s 56-41 shoot out with Nazareth. Part of that was just the sheer volume of possessions, but Easton also had atypical lapses. Easton doesn’t have stars on defense, but is solid play-to-play and doesn’t allow long scoring drives. They’ve also done a remarkable job against some of the wide open passing attacks in D11. Easton faced five of the top 25 passing offenses in the 4A this year, and none threw for more than 146 yards, though they did get picked apart for 196 yards by 3A ACC. All four starting defensive linemen have at least five sacks on the year, and they take a major speed and athleticism advantage into almost every match up. The loss of Thompson hurts, as he’s the best pure cover corner in the league. While the secondary has been generally good, they have given up big touchdowns on busted plays in a number of games.
About Freedom
Record: 9-1 (EPC South co-Champions)
District/Subregional Championships: 0
All Time Playoff Record: 3-4
All State Candidates: Cordell Cotto, Brady Hornbaker
All Conference Selections: Cordell Cotto (DE/TE), Brady Hornbaker (LB), Jonah Gundrum (WR), Andres Santos (RB), John Eltringham (K), Alkhion Dunkins (DB)
The Patriots are making back-to-back district/subregional playoff appearances for the first time in program history. Freedom shared the EPC South regular season championship with Parkland, the first championship of any kind for Freedom football since the Bethlehem Township school opened its doors in 1967. Freedom has only posted playoff victories in 2008, where they advanced to the finals before losing to archrival Liberty, and last season with a first round win over Whitehall.
Freedom has been kind of a smoke and mirrors operation on offense this season. Early in the year, they looked like a power run team with Roberto Diez looking like a real force at tailback. But an season ending injury to Diez in week 3 left them without their best offensive weapon. In his absence, they’ve been getting a little from a lot. Andres Santos has taken over primary ballcarrier duties, and the diminutive junior has rushed for 669 yards and 13 TDs on the year.
In the passing game, Joe Young has not been quite as productive as his breakout sophomore season, but he also has nowhere near the receiving corps of last season. Young has completed 54% of his passes for 1,059 yards and 9 TDs in nine games. No Freedom receiver has more than 17 catches, and Brennan Reinart’s 322 yards receiving leads the squad.
Where Freedom makes their money is on defense. The Patriots allow 14.7 points per game and are headlined by EPC Defensive Player of the Year Brady Hornbaker. The junior middle linebacker leads the team in tackles and is an intimidating force in the middle of their 3-3-5 stack defense. Defensive end Cordell Cotto is the best college prospect and was an all league defensive end. It’s also the best secondary in D11, led by Alec Huertas, Alkhion Dunkins, and Jonah Gundrum.
The Matchup
This is the only playoff rematch of teams that met in the regular season. In week 9, Freedom overcame a 13-0 halftime deficit to beat Easton 19-13 in overtime. Freedom forced four turnovers after the break, including a massive Alec Huertas interception and forty yard return to set up the tying touchdown in the last five minutes of regulation. They key to this game will be how both offenses adjust. Freedom won despite gaining just 193 yards of offense, 122 of which were concentrated in four plays (gaining 71 yards on the other 52 snaps). They struggled with Easton pressure, giving up five sacks, rushing for just 68 yards on 40 carries, and throwing a pick six while rushing a throw to avoid a blitz. Easton meanwhile, gained just 60 yards after halftime and turned the ball over four times, including a stretch of getting three consecutive pass attempts intercepted by Huertas. Freedom was particularly effective in shutting down Minney-Gratz, who had 128 all purpose yards on 20 touches in the first half, and 18 in the second half on 12 touches.
Freedom is not a fun team to attack for a quarterback with limited experience. The nickel base is a different look, and they can really generate a pass rush with Cotto and DeShawn Polk. If the Patriots can get an early lead and/or continue to stuff the Easton running game, it’s not going to matter what their offense does as long as it gets them on the board.
The Pick
Freedom 17-0
Easton
Record: 7-3 (t-3rd Place, EPC South)
District/Subregional Championships: 7 (1990, 1991, 1993, 2003, 2004, 2009, 2010)
All Time Playoff Record: 24-13
All State Candidates: Nysir Minney-Gratz, David Simmons
All Conference Selections: Ryan Greene (C/DT), Nysir Minney-Gratz (RB), Corey Deemer (LB), Craig Stahlecker (OT/DT), David Simmons (DE)
The Red Rovers are in the subregional playoffs for the sixteenth time in seventeen years, and it is their 21st D11 postseason appearance since 1988. This is lowest Easton has ever been seeded in the subregional tournament, joining the 2007 squad who was also the 6 seed (and lost a 36-29 thriller to Hazleton in overtime). Easton is 5-8 all time on the road in district/subregional playoff games (as compared to19-5 at home) and barring bracket chaos, they will be away from Cottingham the rest of the way.
Easton is averaging 38.7 points per game, almost entirely driven by their rushing attack. The Red Rovers are on pace to attempt their fewest passes since 2005, and they’ve thrown the most interceptions as a program since as least 1999 (the farthest back I can find INTs). They also will be trotting out backup quarterback Ben Nimeh for the third week in a row, as senior captain and starter Trey Durrah appears to be out for the year with a knee injury suffered against Liberty.
The running game has been an obvious strength. Running back Nysir Minney-Gratz is fifth in the state with 1,710 rushing yards, 469 effort yards in the regular season finale against Nazareth. Minney-Gratz broke the Easton single game record (set in 1991 by Juan Gaddy) by 155 yards and the D11 record (set in 1998 by Whitehall’s Nick Kurtz) by 43 yards. With that effort, he moved from 11th to 5th on the Easton single season rushing list, and is one of five backs in school history with a 1,700+ yard season (Shane Simpson, Juan Gaddy, Brad Piperata, and Eric Thompson). Three of the four backs ahead of him set their marks aided by trips to the Eastern Finals and Minney-Gratz has the most yards in school history through ten games.
But that big effort came at a cost. It was reported Tuesday that Minney-Gratz is questionable for Friday night with a leg injury. This would be the fourth time in the last five years that Easton would be without their leading rusher in the playoffs. This is particularly crippling, because for the first time since 1997, Easton does not have multiple running backs with at least 600 yards. Heck, going back to the 1950s with Pete Americus and Bill Houston, Easton usually splits carries among two backs with varied skill sets (the old Mr. Inside/Mr. Outside idea) This year, Minney-Gratz has 204 carries, nobody else has more than 35.
To make matters worse, second on the depth chart is Katrell Thompson, who has missed the last two weeks with a concussion and isn’t expected back. That leaves Easton with senior fullback Isaiah Walker and freshman tailback Gernard Finney as your likely backfield against Freedom. Finney ran for 76 yards and a touchdown against Whitehall, has been covering kicks on special teams and is just one of five freshmen to play varsity football for Steve Shiffert. He is very highly regarded, but at 5’6 160 pounds and 14 years old, just doesn’t have the physical maturity yet to handle being an every down back.
Whoever gets the carries on Friday, they’ll be running behind an undersized but athletic offensive line. Though they average just 211 pounds across, and the biggest guy is ten pounds lighter than the smallest lineman at Wyoming Valley West, they’ve paved the way for 2,680 yards by Easton ballcarriers this year. They take advantage of their quickness and mobility advantage by running lots of sweeps to get everybody in motion and the group is extremely well coached and technically sound.
Defensively, Easton gives up 16.2 points per game, a number that shot way up in last week’s 56-41 shoot out with Nazareth. Part of that was just the sheer volume of possessions, but Easton also had atypical lapses. Easton doesn’t have stars on defense, but is solid play-to-play and doesn’t allow long scoring drives. They’ve also done a remarkable job against some of the wide open passing attacks in D11. Easton faced five of the top 25 passing offenses in the 4A this year, and none threw for more than 146 yards, though they did get picked apart for 196 yards by 3A ACC. All four starting defensive linemen have at least five sacks on the year, and they take a major speed and athleticism advantage into almost every match up. The loss of Thompson hurts, as he’s the best pure cover corner in the league. While the secondary has been generally good, they have given up big touchdowns on busted plays in a number of games.
About Freedom
Record: 9-1 (EPC South co-Champions)
District/Subregional Championships: 0
All Time Playoff Record: 3-4
All State Candidates: Cordell Cotto, Brady Hornbaker
All Conference Selections: Cordell Cotto (DE/TE), Brady Hornbaker (LB), Jonah Gundrum (WR), Andres Santos (RB), John Eltringham (K), Alkhion Dunkins (DB)
The Patriots are making back-to-back district/subregional playoff appearances for the first time in program history. Freedom shared the EPC South regular season championship with Parkland, the first championship of any kind for Freedom football since the Bethlehem Township school opened its doors in 1967. Freedom has only posted playoff victories in 2008, where they advanced to the finals before losing to archrival Liberty, and last season with a first round win over Whitehall.
Freedom has been kind of a smoke and mirrors operation on offense this season. Early in the year, they looked like a power run team with Roberto Diez looking like a real force at tailback. But an season ending injury to Diez in week 3 left them without their best offensive weapon. In his absence, they’ve been getting a little from a lot. Andres Santos has taken over primary ballcarrier duties, and the diminutive junior has rushed for 669 yards and 13 TDs on the year.
In the passing game, Joe Young has not been quite as productive as his breakout sophomore season, but he also has nowhere near the receiving corps of last season. Young has completed 54% of his passes for 1,059 yards and 9 TDs in nine games. No Freedom receiver has more than 17 catches, and Brennan Reinart’s 322 yards receiving leads the squad.
Where Freedom makes their money is on defense. The Patriots allow 14.7 points per game and are headlined by EPC Defensive Player of the Year Brady Hornbaker. The junior middle linebacker leads the team in tackles and is an intimidating force in the middle of their 3-3-5 stack defense. Defensive end Cordell Cotto is the best college prospect and was an all league defensive end. It’s also the best secondary in D11, led by Alec Huertas, Alkhion Dunkins, and Jonah Gundrum.
The Matchup
This is the only playoff rematch of teams that met in the regular season. In week 9, Freedom overcame a 13-0 halftime deficit to beat Easton 19-13 in overtime. Freedom forced four turnovers after the break, including a massive Alec Huertas interception and forty yard return to set up the tying touchdown in the last five minutes of regulation. They key to this game will be how both offenses adjust. Freedom won despite gaining just 193 yards of offense, 122 of which were concentrated in four plays (gaining 71 yards on the other 52 snaps). They struggled with Easton pressure, giving up five sacks, rushing for just 68 yards on 40 carries, and throwing a pick six while rushing a throw to avoid a blitz. Easton meanwhile, gained just 60 yards after halftime and turned the ball over four times, including a stretch of getting three consecutive pass attempts intercepted by Huertas. Freedom was particularly effective in shutting down Minney-Gratz, who had 128 all purpose yards on 20 touches in the first half, and 18 in the second half on 12 touches.
Freedom is not a fun team to attack for a quarterback with limited experience. The nickel base is a different look, and they can really generate a pass rush with Cotto and DeShawn Polk. If the Patriots can get an early lead and/or continue to stuff the Easton running game, it’s not going to matter what their offense does as long as it gets them on the board.
The Pick
Freedom 17-0
