FREEPORT — A slew of inopportune mistakes and just 79 yards of offense conspired against Deer Lakes and helped the Freeport football team to a 61-0 victory Friday night.

"We had the fumbles and maybe we just weren't ready to play," said Deer Lakes head coach Denny Fedigan. "The two turnovers in the beginning didn't help and it seemed to unravel after that. We just couldn't get anything going on offense."

A Lancers fumble on the opening kickoff and another on the ensuing drive gave the Yellowjackets the ball twice on the Deer Lakes 37-yard line. The turnovers resulted in touchdowns by wide receiver Josh Schrecengost and running back Brady Sherrieb, giving Freeport an early 14-0 advantage.

The Yellowjackets exploited a third Lancers fumble with 8:49 left in the first quarter when quarterback Brian Zimmerman hooked up with wide receiver Nate Kotecki for a 38-yard TD. Deer Lakes fumbled seven times.

Running back Kirk Naedele and fullback Kevin Turner added scores, putting Freeport up 40-0 going into the half and triggering the mercy clock for the final two quarters.

The Yellowjackets didn't punt and turned the ball over on downs only once, and that was when Zimmerman took a knee for an entire possession.

Coming into the game, Freeport head coach Bill Dillen was worried about how his team would match up against a bigger Deer Lakes team.

"They're big and they've been playing well the last couple of weeks, but our kids really stepped up tonight," he said. "We made some changes on offense. We saw they were coming off of the ball a little quicker, so we made some play-action passes.

"We made some good fakes and the people up in the booth saw the openings in the line, so we got some scores and just went from there."