McCANDLESS TWP — Freeport football coach John Gaillot said before Friday night’s kickoff that he looked forward to seeing the physicality of his young Yellowjackets team.

He got more than he could have dreamt.

Freeport allowed Vincentian Academy less than 50 yards of offense in a 49-14 season-opening non-conference win Friday night at Stone Field.

“They’re just so young and replacing so many,” Gaillot said. “We increased the physicality and they answered with a major exclamation point.”

After capitalizing on a failed fake punt on the Royals’ opening drive, Freeport stung quickly with a 20-yard run by sophomore Conor Selinger with 8:08 left in the first quarter.

On Yellowjackets next drive, fellow sophomore Austin Romanchak showed his speed, dodging defenders left and right as he found the end zone on a 57-yard run.

Selinger and Romanchak would each find the end zone again later in the half with scoring runs of 22 yards and 28 yards, respectively.

They were Romanchak’s first varsity touchdowns.

“It’s a great experience to get out there with my boys,” Romanchak said. “The line did a great job blocking for our scrambling.”

Romanchak wasn’t done yet.

In the second quarter, he showed his capabilities as a passer, throwing to wide receiver Jacob Sarver for a 20-yard score and later to receiver Evan Schlauffhauser from 3 yards out.

With the throw to Schlauffhauser, the Yellowjackets surged to a 35-point lead, bringing out the mercy rule.

“We got our first varsity experience,” Romanchak said. “We lost a lot of seniors and it was nice to get a game outside of our section to get used to it.”

Selinger finished with 100 yards rushing on nine carries to go with his pair of touchdowns.

“We got to see what our game is made of,” he said. “I just want to thank the (offensive) line.”

Both Romanchak and Selinger along with the rest of the starting offense took the rest of the night off after the mercy rule came into play.

Late in the first quarter, Vincentian looked to gain ground after a 95-yard kick return by Jimmy Seskey. However, the Royals could not muster any offense on the ground or in the air, failing to complete a pass all night.

Along with that, starting signal caller Cameron Kreutzer was taken out of the game with an injury after being sacked in the first quarter.

The Royals were in danger of having total negative yardage on offense until a late Bryce Kwiatowski 69-yard scoring run pulled them out of the red.

The Yellowjackets starting defense ended the night with five tackles-for-loss and two sacks.

“Freeport kids are resilient and tough,” Gaillot said. “They just have that competitive nature. It’s really good what we have here. I like what I see so far.”

With that physicality though, the Yellowjackets also gained the wrong kind of yards.

Freeport had 15 penalties for 130 yards, including multiple calls for pass interference and personal fouls.

“That comes with the physicality,” Gaillot said. “I don’t want them to play timid. Sometimes you have to take some of those. Hopefully we learn our lessons.”