By REID TUCKER
There was a time when South Walton didn’t hold out much hopes of beating Freeport in their yearly football meeting. There was a time when the “Battle of the Bay” was almost a sure win for the Bulldogs.
All that changed in 2013, when the Seahawks stunned the Freeport home crowd with a two-touchdown win. On their turf on Oct. 24 – homecoming night no less – the Seahawks increased their margin of victory to four touchdowns, dispelling any notion that South Walton (de facto district champs with a 7-1 record) hasn’t well and truly arrived as a growing area power. For head coach Phil Tisa, the win at home goes a long way toward building a legacy of success at the school.
“It always feels great to beat Freeport, and it feels even better to do it at home this year,” he said. “We said before the game that we are trying to start a trend. It wasn’t always pretty, but we did what we were supposed to do. We did what we had to do to win.”
When Tisa said the game wasn’t pretty, what he meant was that South Walton got the W via what counts on his team as unconventional methods. The theme of the 2014 season has been to let quarterback Jonathan Ortner throw long-range passes to his main receiver – Alex Smith – to rack up big yardage and touchdowns by the drove. Against Freeport though, the Seahawks had to rely on their running game, with three of the team’s five TDs coming by way of rushes, and all from different runners.
To wit, Ortner completed 11-of-19 passing attempts for an uncharacteristically low 187 yards on the night, though he did get in two touchdown passes.
On the other side of the ball, the much-improved Seahawk defense pulled extra duty in holding down Freeport’s attempts to get off passes of its own while stifling the ‘Dogs’ attempts at running the ball. These efforts largely succeeded, as Freeport had 242 yards of total offense to South Walton’s 537, and only 18 of the Bulldogs’ yardage was gained through the air. Freeport’s Zack Seay completed just 1-of-12 passes, such was South Walton’s aggressive coverage in the contest, but he did lead his team in rushing yards, with 94 yards on 24 carries.
It was obvious that both teams came to play, as neither side could do much in the first quarter. South Walton broke the scoring drought with a 22-yard touchdown connection between Ortner and Ben Balfanze with 3:57 to go, making the score 7-0 after the successful extra point kick. Freeport used the rest of the period working the ball down to the 36-yard line, and eventually got down to the 17 early in Q2, but South Walton forced a turnover on downs on fourth-and-1. The Seahawks didn’t score on their next possession either, with a 16-yard field goal attempt with 6:57 to go in the half going wide.
Freeport had the advantage of two 15-yard penalties levied against South Walton when it made a way down to the 10-yard line on its ensuing possession, but Seay got picked with 3:18 remaining. The Seahawks turned that mistake into a 14-0 lead less than two minutes later when Ortner floated in a 20-yard pass to Freeport transfer Jireh Crittenden, setting up a 1-yard sprint to the EZ from Joe Ledo-Massey. The ‘Hawks got on the scoreboard once more before the half when, after forcing Freeport three-and-out, Ortner completed a 45-yard touchdown pass to Smith with :31 seconds left before intermission.
South Walton, leading 21-zip at the half, scored twice more in the third quarter. First, Donnie Grosskopf (10 carries for 94 rushing yards) made a hasty way across the goal line from 22 yards out with 7:56 to go, and second after a long 11-play drive culminating in a 1-yard run from Harrison Schaffer (13 carries, 117 yards) in the final 10 seconds. In between those two South Walton touchdowns was Freeport’s sole score of the night: a 7-yard run from Chris Dekker (15 carries, 60 yards) to cap off a 12-play drive from the South Walton 46.
Neither team scored in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t from lack of trying. The same bad blood that led the opposing fans to vandalize Freeport’s bulldog statue and to toilet-paper Coach Tisa’s house the night before the game drove the opposing teams to push within spitting distance of the end zone only to be turned back in the end.
Freeport will take on district foe Jay at home this week, while South Walton is set to go on the road against Panama City’s Bozeman on Thursday night.
