Freeport pulls away from Baldwin

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Freeport’s Aaje Grayson rushed for two touchdowns and 120 yards on ten carries and added an interception in a 34-0 rout of Conference I rival Baldwin on Sept. 28.

Held to a 6-0 halftime lead by Baldwin’s early stout defense, Freeport (3-1) went on an offensive tear, scoring four consecutive touchdowns, capped by an endzone-bound Grayson dashing untouched 35 yards up the middle early in the fourth quarter. The senior running back scored the game’s first points on a 25-yard rush on Freeport’s second possession. An errant snap muffed the extra-point attempt. 

“In the second half we pulled it together, but the o-line was blocking great the whole game,” Grayson said.

Receiver Jordan Jackson atoned for dropping a surefire touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Terrance Edmond in the second quarter with two touchdown grabs in the third. The 6-foot junior had a 48-yard reception he took down the left sideline and a 15-yard catch that sealed a 40-yard drive that put Freeport up 27-0 with 2:37 left in the quarter. 

“The one Jordan missed right up the seam, that was a gimme,” said Russ Cellan, Freeport’s head coach who was inducted into the Nassau County High School Athletics Hall of Fame the day before the game. “He’s fighting the ball a little bit and worrying about bad things happening instead of just playing, and that’s the case with a lot of our receivers.”

In between Jackson’s touchdowns, senior running back Greg Pimentel, who rushed for 70 yards on five carries, ran 56 yards to Baldwin’s 4-yard line, and two plays later raced into the end zone from five yards out.

Baldwin’s defense made several open field tackles that helped keep the score manageable while the offense struggled in the first half. The Bruins (1-3) generated just 76 total yards before halftime, plagued by overthrown balls and penalties, including successive offsides. With 1:23 left in the second, Baldwin junior quarterback Messiah Floyd-Gordan tossed a ball downfield from his team’s 46-yard line that hung in the air and defensive back Grayson picked off.

“We played a good game the first half, and then the second half I don’t know what happened,” Baldwin head coach Steve Carroll said. “Everything just stopped and things just went south. We have an uncanny way of getting a lot of dumb penalties, and once those came, the whole thing just flipped on us and the game was over.”

Despite unsportsmanlike conduct and false start calls during Baldwin’s second-half opening drive, the Bruins drove to Freeport’s 32-yard line. The drive featured a heavy dose of junior running back Eric Manigult, who gained 52 yards on 12 carries. But more penalties and errant passes lead to a scoreless effort. Late in the quarter, Manigult went down with a leg injury. 

On Baldwin’s next possession, Freeport’s Justin Lescouflair, a junior defensive back, intercepted a pass across the middle. Senior Robert Fitzsimmons, a 6-foot-5, 255-pound linebacker, led the Red Devils with 11 tackles, including one sack.

Baldwin will welcome Plainview (1-3) for Homecoming this Saturday at 3 p.m., while Freeport travels to Conference I top-seed Oceanside (4-0) for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff.