A few weeks ago, Freeport coach John Gaillot started seeing his defense hit like the team a couple years ago that won a conference championship.
On Friday, the Yellowjackets defense exceeded even Gaillot’s expectations.
The Yellowjackets had five sacks and forced a pair turnovers to spoil Highlands’ homecoming with a 28-7 victory that put them in the driver’s seat for a playoff berth in the Class 3A Greater Allegheny Conference.
"They played out of their minds,” Gaillot said of his defense. "They hit as hard as I’ve ever seen in my 17 years here. This is a big win tonight.”
With the win Freeport (5-2, 3-1) kept itself in third place in the conference and has tiebreakers over Burrell and Highlands (2-4, 1-3).
Highlands averaged 38 points coming into Friday but was held off the scoreboard until the final two minutes of the game.
A Freeport defense led by senior captain Sean Selinger held the Golden Rams to fewer than 50 yards rushing.
"It feels great, and I knew our defense could do this all along,” Selinger said. "I still don’t think we have shown our full potential yet. We’re a really good team, and I think we’re underestimated. People think we’re undersized, but I think we make up for our size with heart.”
After a scoreless first quarter, Freeport broke through early in the second when Drew Ross scored on a 10-yard run.
The touchdown was set up by a 29-yard pass play from Ross to Selinger.
Highlands drove past midfield on its next drive, but Lucas’ pass attempt to Montrell Johnson was tipped up into the air and intercepted by Freeport’s Madden Wisniewski.
The Yellowjackets wasted little time turning that turnover into points.
On the next play Ross threw a strike to a wide-open Danny King, who finished off a 65 yard touchdown, making it 14-0.
"That was huge for us,” Gaillot said. "It made it a totally different game.”
Highlands was without starting running back Darius Cherry because of injury and leaned on starting quarterback Menage Lucas, who broke a few long runs but was hounded by the Yellowjackets.
He drove the Golden Rams down to the Freeport 5-yard line on the opening possession of the game, but his fourth-down pass attempt was broken up by Ross.
Lucas limped off the field after being sacked at the end of the first quarter but returned for the Golden Rams’ next series.
He finished with 150 passing yards and continued to get up despite hit after hit from the Yellowjackets.
"I can’t say enough good things about Menage,” Highlands coach Matt Bonislawski said. "He does everything we ask and has the heart of a champion. The problem is that there just aren’t many guys following along. We’ve got a lot of distractions right now internally. It’s been that way for the past week with stuff we’ve had to deal with. It’s a lot for us to handle, but we have to right the ship and figure some of these things out.”
Amos Glenn scored on a 2-yard run in the fourth quarter to make it 21-0.
Owen Neistein intercepted Lucas’ pass on the next Highlands possession, which set up a 30-yard touchdown throw from Ross to Wisniewski.
Ross finished with 167 yards passing.
Lucas connected with Johnson for a 25-yard score, which ended Freeport’s shutout bid.
Jerin Steele is a freelance writer
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