By REID TUCKER
If Freeport head coach Jim Anderson had a catchphrase on the night of the massive win against North Bay Haven it was some variation of “The most important thing about homecoming is winning the homecoming game.”
Those words of wisdom, given frequently to the Freeport players throughout the Sept. 19 contest, must have stuck, as the Bulldogs (2-2) quickly got their act together after suffering an early setback. The visiting Buccaneers got a 7-0 lead just two plays and 53 seconds into the game, but the Bulldogs were far from disheartened. Freeport and North Bay Haven exchanged fumbles on their next possessions, but then the ‘Dogs retaliated with a short three-play drive culminating in a touchdown and two-point conversion from senior David Godwin (94 yards on eight carries), who lead his team in scoring.
“It’s a really great feeling to come out and have this kind of a win for the last homecoming of your high school career,” said Godwin, who was also named 2014’s homecoming king. “We focused on what was really important and got the win, so that makes the celebration all that much better.”
Homecoming festivities and the near-torrential rain that caused the game to get off to a late start were no longer a distraction after Freeport got that 8-7 lead, and the Bulldogs never looked out of sorts nor fought from behind the rest of the night. In fact, they fairly well dominated the Bucs, piling on the TDs as the game went on – scoring on seven of their nine drives and all three times they had the ball in the second half. Freeport was so overwhelmingly in control of the game they even secured a running clock in the fourth quarter at the behest of the NBH leadership despite having a lead 5 points shy of the usually requisite 35.
Freeport nailed NBH three more times before the end of the first half. Godwin went on a 70-yard tear, scoring from the Bulldogs’ own 30-yard line with 1:41 remaining in the first quarter, while quarterback Dillon Bates (2-for-2, 32 yards; eight carries for 83 yards) made good the two-point conversion for a 16-7 lead, and he scored again a few minutes into Q2 on a four-yard run. Though the Buccaneers’ ground it out for a goal-line score from Houston Morris with 5:03 remaining in the half, their attempt at a two-point conversion got stuffed by Freeport, which then led into yet another Bulldogs TD minutes later, this time a 14-yard pass from Bates to Chris Dekker.
The first Freeport drive after the intermission was a long one – eight plays and almost four full minutes to make it the 58 yards from its own 42 to the end zone. Nevertheless, Bates got the ball across the line on a QB sneak for a 36-13 Freeport lead, though kicker Matthew Blair had his point-after attempt unceremoniously blocked by the trailing Bucs.
The Freeport defense shone in North Bay Haven’s next possession, holding the Bucs to fourth-and-27 on their own 22-yard-line. That strong showing from the D-line in turn set up another successful Bulldog scoring drive, as Zack Seay and Phillip Johnson worked together to move the ball from the 37 to score from 6 yards out with 2:58 to go in the third quarter. Blair got the kick for a 43-13 lead.
North Bay Haven got on the scoreboard a final time in the last 12 minutes of the game, which was played almost in real time due to the running clock brought on by Freeport’s overwhelming advantage. The Bucs worked from their own 48-yard line right before the end of Q3 to score five plays later on a flick of a 4-yard pass from Michael Cowart to Billy Blaine, though the conversion attempt failed, leaving the score at 43-19.
However, Freeport had the last say in the matter, as Kelvic Thompson ran the ball all the way from the Freeport 35 to the 15-yard line, paving the way for an 8-yard touchdown run by Dalton Raymond with 6:02 left in the game. Blair put in the point after kick to put the score at its final resting place of 50-19 and the Freeport defense once again stopped the Bucs dead on their own 35 to put the finishing touches on the win.
