In historic victory, Freeport football capitalizes on Ellwood City’s special teams blunders
ELLWOOD CITY — Friday’s game was more than just another win for Freeport football — it marked the 600th win in the program’s history.
After the 45-7 blowout win over Ellwood City at Helling Stadium, players, coaches and cheerleaders took turns taking pictures with a special “600 wins” banner.
For Freeport head coach John Gaillot, it was a full-circle moment; his first year as head coach of the ’Jackets was 2008. The following year, they captured their 500th win. Now 17 years later, the same coach has brought them to win No. 600.
“It’s very satisfying for me, because in my (second) year of coaching we won the 500th, and now with this being 600 ... just to be a part of this is very special,” Gaillot said.
The first half featured plenty of scoring, but most of it wasn’t from the offense.
Freeport (2-0) got on the board early when senior cornerback Eli Perroz recovered a blocked Ellwood City punt and returned it for a touchdown less than two minutes into the game.
Two more special teams lapses by Ellwood City in the first half created two more Freeport touchdowns.
The first came when Wolverines punter Tyler Amicone fumbled a snap, which was recovered by senior linebacker Nick Jones for a touchdown. In the second quarter, another Amicone fumble was recovered at the 1-yard line, leading to a touchdown run on the next play by Braydon Pomaybo.
Freeport’s offense, which hadn’t been needed early, finally clicked into gear at the end of the first half by stringing together a 12-play, 80-yard touchdown drive capped off by a 9-yard touchdown pass from Danny King to Bryson Paga. The score made it 28-0 for the Yellowjackets, with Freeport sneaking in a field goal just before halftime following another Ellwood City turnover.
King finished the day 6 of 11 passing for 121 yards.
“We got into our groove with running and passing, and we started to open things up,” Gaillot said. “And then our defense was really shutting them down and constantly giving us opportunities.”
Ellwood City avoided a shutout when Anthony Washington snagged an interception off of King in the third quarter. Although his touchdown return was called back by a block-in-the-back penalty, the Wolverines kept the ball. On the next play, Frisk scored on a 30-yard touchdown run to give Ellwood City its only points of the game.
“We got a lot of work to do yet in all facets,” Gaillot said. “We have a lot of work to still fine-tune stuff with.”
Freeport 14 17 7 7 — 45
Ellwood City 0 0 7 0 — 7
1st Quarter
F — Eli Perroz 17 blocked punt return (Judah Thompson kick) 10:20
F — Nick Jones 0 fumble return (Thompson kick) 3:50
2nd Quarter
F — Braydon Pomaybo 1 run (Thompson kick) 11:05
F — Bryson Paga 9 pass from Danny King (Thompson kick) 1:12
F — Thompson 22 field goal 0:00
3rd Quarter
F — Chace Flynn 2 run (Thompson kick) 11:13
EC — Giulian Frisk 30 run (Dominic D’Addio kick) 5:32
4th Quarter
F — Luca Pollino 23 run (Camden Schlegel kick) 1:45
Individual Statistics
Rushing: Freeport, Braydon Pomaybo 15-39, Chace Flynn 3-15, Luca Pollino 2-43, Luke Selinger 2-35, Danny King 2-17, Bryson Paga 2-12. Ellwood City, Richard Cureton 10-43, Giulian Frisk 8-54, Nick Doster 6-50, Caleb Desanzo 1-5, Landon Dombeck 1-0.
Passing: Freeport, Danny King 6-11-121-1. Ellwood City, Nick Doster 2-9-3-0, Caleb Desanzo 0-0-0-0.
Receiving: Freeport, Bryson Paga 4-48, Camden Schlegel 1-58, Canon Wisniewski 1-15. Ellwood City, Cameron Mills 1-2, Domenic Dinucci 1-1.
