Liberty High School‘s defense appears to be getting into championship shape just in time.

The Patriots’ first-team defense pitched three shutout quarters Friday night before giving way to the reserves in a 38-15 win over Northampton in the District 11 Class 6A quarterfinals at Bethlehem Area School District Stadium.

Add in a clean sheet in the second half of last week’s 44-24 win over rival Liberty, and second-seeded Freedom (10-1) has its defensive mojo back heading into Friday’s home game next against third-seeded Parkland in the semifinals. The Trojans eliminated No. 6 Liberty 27-9.

“For a few games we were missing some players and playing younger guys,” senior inside linebacker Ryan Roeder said. “Tonight we worked as a team. We played as a unit. All 11 guys played as one.

Freedom coach Jason Roeder, who is Ryan’s father, praised the defense for its performance on a night when the Patriots’ usually prolific offense wasn’t firing on all cylinders.

“We always talk about intensifying different facets of football,” the coach said. “Tonight the offense wasn’t quite finishing drives, but our defense kept them in check.”

Freedom’s offense came into its own against Northampton in a 42-21 victory three weeks ago at Al Erdosy Stadium. The Konkrete Kids also moved the ball at will, with quarterback Gavin Taff completing 18 of 28 passes for 196 yards. Their problem was closing drives inside the 20.

So you could see a path that seventh-seeded Northampton (5-6) could take to pull off the upset. Except the Konkrete Kids stumbled out and never found their place.

Freedom held Taff to five completions for 23 yards and the running game to 43 yards on 10 carries in the first half.

“We didn’t execute,” Northampton coach John Toman said. “I think I counted eight loose balls in the first half. What we did last time against them…the first pass we threw to the guy was open and it was dropped. I can’t explain why.

The Konkrete Kids recorded just two first downs in the first half and just two more by the time Freedom took a 31-0 lead early in the fourth quarter.

Senior Aaron Beete rushed eight times in Freedom’s 12-play, 68-yard opener that resulted in Beete’s score from the 2.

Patriots junior linebacker Brian Renshaw made a great play to stop running back Billy Stuhldreher for no gain on fourth-and-3 from Freedom’s 43 late in the first quarter.

Northampton’s defense returned the favor. Beete was stuffed for no yards by defensive tackle Gavin Grell on fourth-and-1 at the K-Kids’ 12 with 5 minutes left in the half.

However, the Patriots didn’t allow Northampton to breathe on its next series, which set up Freedom’s offense at the visiting 46.

Senior wide receiver Amare DuBoise covered 43 of those yards with a goal-line dive. The closest official estimated his knee hit the 1. A touchdown would have been a good shot for DuBoise’s five catches for 117 yards.

Instead, quarterback Chase Walker connected with Shacre Colwell on third-and-goal from 6 for the score with 1:56 to play. Freedom was penalized five yards for an “assist the runner” penalty when he tried three times to get Walker across the goal line on his version of the “Patriot Tush Push.”

“I went in motion (left to right) and saw they were playing man,” Colwell said. “I knew they couldn’t cover me in this room.”

The completion allowed Walker to surpass 2,000 yards for the season. He completed 12 of 22 passes for 169 yards and stands unofficially at 2,082 yards. Walker, a baseball recruit from East Stroudsburg University, also had a sure touchdown pass earlier in the half.

Two penalties during their possession to open the second half forced Northampton to kick into the wind. Jelani Fedrick’s 8-yard return put the ball at the Kids’ 47 and set up the grueling play of the game.

Beete gained six yards on the left side. On the next play, Walker took a few steps to his left and threw the ball to wide receiver Geovanny Ledee on what looked like a reverse — until the 5-foot-9, 160-pound receiver rose to pass .

“I’ve been a quarterback since I played for the Bethlehem Steelers,” said Ledee, who is also Freedom’s punter.

Ledee didn’t panic when a Northampton defender came charging at him. He stopped, planted and threw to Colwell, who was waiting for the ball at the 15. Colwell danced and weaved through a trio of defenders before diving across the goal line.

“I’ve thrown touchdowns before, but this is my first in a (college) game,” Ledee said. “He (Colwell) is a good receiver, and I just had to get him the ball.”

“We’ve been working on this play since the beginning of the season,” Colwell said. “The coaches were just waiting for the right moment to use it. I felt like I had to do everything I could to score.

Jason Roeder said he was breaking Ledee’s chops because it wasn’t one of his best throws.

“Geovanny played quarterback for us until this year,” Roeder said. “We moved him to wide receiver because he’s such a great athlete that we had to get him on the field. And the last few weeks, with (Jayden Macon) being injured, he’s had more reps.

A 38-yard catch and run by DuBoise led to Nate Stannard’s 28-yard field goal. Walker lofted a fade pass that tight end/H guard Jacob Hauze, a 6-3, 245-pound junior, deftly caught over his shoulder on fourth-and-goal from the 2 for a 31-0 lead. the second game of the fourth quarter.

Northampton scored as Freedom began running into defensive subs. Stuhldreher carried five straight times for 45 yards before Taff threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to senior tight end Trent Reeves. Zeke Spencer ran in for the two-point conversion.

Sophomore running back Lashawn Johnson broke away from the left side and outran all potential tacklers to cap off Freedom’s scoring with a 76-yard touchdown run. Beete’s replacement finished with five carries for 95 yards after posting similar numbers (five carries for 93 yards, 50 yards touchdown) against Liberty.

Beete, after posting a titanic 359 yards and four rushing touchdowns against Liberty, gained 65 yards on 11 carries in the first quarter against Northampton. THE Reigning lehighvalleylive.com Player of the Week had 80 yards on 16 attempts at halftime and finished with 97 on 21 attempts. For the season, Beete has unofficially gained 1,645 yards as he nears Darius Webb’s school record of 1,741 yards in a single season.

Stuhldreher also surpassed 1,000 yards with his eight-yard run early in Northampton’s final possession, which was capped by quarterback Aiden Hess’ 2-yard TD run with 23 seconds remaining. He will have one more game to add to his 1,007 yards when the Konkrete Kids meet Catasauqua for the 101st time on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 28).

“Catasauqua is considered our contingency game, so we can’t schedule any other games between now and then,” Toman said of the 27-day layoff. “We will train twice next week. Until then, we will have a reduced training program.

There will be no rest for Freedom, ranked second this week in the lehighvalleylive.com Top 12, as he attempts to beat another opponent for the second time this season. The Patriots defeated Parkland 30-13 in the second game of the season to earn the program’s 300th victory. Parkland’s only other loss came against Emmaus last week.

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Corky Blake can be contacted at [email protected].