By REID TUCKER
Freeport put the wraps on its 2015 football season with a crushing 35-0 win over Rocky Bayou, but the real victor on the Bulldogs’ homecoming night was Chris Decker.
The whole team threw its weight behind Decker’s effort to rack up 1,000-plus rushing yards on the season, a feat that the junior running back achieved in the fourth quarter of the Nov. 6 game against the visiting Knights. Decker, who needed 156 yards to break a thou’, carried the ball 29 times in the contest, accruing 170 yards and the final touchdown of the night on a 43-yard run for the end zone with a little more than six minutes left in play. He might have done even more had he not tweaked his ankle after the half, but with zealous support from the offensive line he soldiered on, breaking through an increasingly determined Rocky Bayou defense on the way to the game-winning score and a place in school history.
Decker, in typically modest form, focused more on his team’s 5-5 record on the season – itself the mark of steady incremental improvements in Freeport’s fortunes in recent years – than his own success on the field.
“It’s wonderful to get a .500 season,” he said. “It feels really great to get better and better every year. We all worked as hard as we could to have a good season for the seniors. I’m happy I ran for more than a thousand yards, but I’m happier that God gave me the opportunity to play here at Freeport with the guys on this team.”
The Bulldogs were almost completely dominant throughout the game against Rocky Bayou: Freeport had 314 yards on the night versus the Knights’ paltry 59. Freeport scored on all but four possessions, and aside from the final touchdown scored by Decker, the rest of the scoring was done by quarterback Zack Seay, who ran in for all four touchdowns.
Seay got started after a somewhat bumpy start in which Rocky forced a turnover on downs during Freeport’s first possession, but a fumble by the Knights – their first of four – soon turned into a Bulldog touchdown on a 17-yard run with 5:03 left in the first quarter. Decker ran in the two-point conversion for an 8-0 lead that Rocky never threatened to overturn. Seay scored again on a 31-yard run with 1:56 to go, and Zack Johnson put the kick between uprights for a 15-0 l advantage.
Freeport scored twice more in the second quarter, first after Decker blocked Rocky Bayou’s punt and Johnson scooped it up on the 14. Seay put the ball into the end zone from 11 yards out two plays later with 10:35 showing on the clock, and he did it again from 9 yards with 5:03 left before halftime. Decker carried the ball no less than seven times, sometimes all in a row, right before the break, but Freeport got no further than the 43 before the end of the quarter.
Nobody scored in the third quarter, but Decker was again called upon to run the ball play after play in an effort to get him the 156 yards he needed, with his total edging north of 100 yards on the night by the end of the period. Freeport turned the ball over on downs at the start of Q4, but the stalwart defense forced Rocky to do the same, and Decker ran just two plays before scoring the Bulldogs’ 35-0 touchdown with 6:26 still to go. He ran the ball four more times in Freeport’s last possession just to be sure he’d broken the 1,000-yard threshold.
Freeport defensive coordinator and assistant coach Shaun Arntz had high praise for the collective will of his players – especially the seniors’ – attributing the program’s continual improvements to each team member’s individual efforts to get better on and off the field.
“They all just kept coming back every day, even when we had our ups and downs,” Arntz said. “I’m really proud of our seniors. If we make it into the playoffs next year, a lot of people in the stands will only know about those teams that make it (to the post-season), but they won’t know about the hard work of the seniors who got the program back on track.”
Freeport put the wraps on its 2015 football season with a crushing 35-0 win over Rocky Bayou, but the real victor on the Bulldogs’ homecoming night was Chris Decker.
The whole team threw its weight behind Decker’s effort to rack up 1,000-plus rushing yards on the season, a feat that the junior running back achieved in the fourth quarter of the Nov. 6 game against the visiting Knights. Decker, who needed 156 yards to break a thou’, carried the ball 29 times in the contest, accruing 170 yards and the final touchdown of the night on a 43-yard run for the end zone with a little more than six minutes left in play. He might have done even more had he not tweaked his ankle after the half, but with zealous support from the offensive line he soldiered on, breaking through an increasingly determined Rocky Bayou defense on the way to the game-winning score and a place in school history.
Decker, in typically modest form, focused more on his team’s 5-5 record on the season – itself the mark of steady incremental improvements in Freeport’s fortunes in recent years – than his own success on the field.
“It’s wonderful to get a .500 season,” he said. “It feels really great to get better and better every year. We all worked as hard as we could to have a good season for the seniors. I’m happy I ran for more than a thousand yards, but I’m happier that God gave me the opportunity to play here at Freeport with the guys on this team.”
The Bulldogs were almost completely dominant throughout the game against Rocky Bayou: Freeport had 314 yards on the night versus the Knights’ paltry 59. Freeport scored on all but four possessions, and aside from the final touchdown scored by Decker, the rest of the scoring was done by quarterback Zack Seay, who ran in for all four touchdowns.
Seay got started after a somewhat bumpy start in which Rocky forced a turnover on downs during Freeport’s first possession, but a fumble by the Knights – their first of four – soon turned into a Bulldog touchdown on a 17-yard run with 5:03 left in the first quarter. Decker ran in the two-point conversion for an 8-0 lead that Rocky never threatened to overturn. Seay scored again on a 31-yard run with 1:56 to go, and Zack Johnson put the kick between uprights for a 15-0 l advantage.
Freeport scored twice more in the second quarter, first after Decker blocked Rocky Bayou’s punt and Johnson scooped it up on the 14. Seay put the ball into the end zone from 11 yards out two plays later with 10:35 showing on the clock, and he did it again from 9 yards with 5:03 left before halftime. Decker carried the ball no less than seven times, sometimes all in a row, right before the break, but Freeport got no further than the 43 before the end of the quarter.
Nobody scored in the third quarter, but Decker was again called upon to run the ball play after play in an effort to get him the 156 yards he needed, with his total edging north of 100 yards on the night by the end of the period. Freeport turned the ball over on downs at the start of Q4, but the stalwart defense forced Rocky to do the same, and Decker ran just two plays before scoring the Bulldogs’ 35-0 touchdown with 6:26 still to go. He ran the ball four more times in Freeport’s last possession just to be sure he’d broken the 1,000-yard threshold.
Freeport defensive coordinator and assistant coach Shaun Arntz had high praise for the collective will of his players – especially the seniors’ – attributing the program’s continual improvements to each team member’s individual efforts to get better on and off the field.
“They all just kept coming back every day, even when we had our ups and downs,” Arntz said. “I’m really proud of our seniors. If we make it into the playoffs next year, a lot of people in the stands will only know about those teams that make it (to the post-season), but they won’t know about the hard work of the seniors who got the program back on track.”