Credit: Charles Wingate | The News Herald

Freedom senior wide receiver Marcus Davis (5) hauls in a pass that helped set up his team's first touchdown on Friday in Sawmills.

Freedom Highs football opener was a tale of two halves.

South Caldwell raced to a three-touchdown advantage in the opening half then held off a vicious second-half rally by the visiting Patriots to claim a 21-12 non-conference football contest Friday at Spartan Stadium.

The Spartans dominated the first quarter in all aspects of the game. They received the opening kickoff then drove 70 yards on 11 plays all rushes to hit paydirt on a 2-yard run off tackle by senior running back Tyler Barber.

Freedoms Khris Gardin returned the ensuing kickoff 43 yards to the Spartan 42. After an illegal motion penalty, senior quarterback Shawn Fairchild hit Gardin with a 9-yard completion. On second down, Fairchild scampered for a 4-yard gain but was stripped of the ball, which was recovered by SCs Andrew Tilghman.

I think if we would have scored there, it would have been a different game, said Freedom coach Mike Helms.

The Spartans wing-T ground attack went back to work in fine fashion, piling up 66 yards on eight attempts as Zac Pollard converted the final 2-yard scoring run for a 14-0 lead with 1:44 left in the opening quarter.

Freedom junior Kwan Hall scooped up a squib kick and returned it 11 yards to put the Pats in good field position at their own 42.

The Patriots could not convert as a dropped pass, a 3-yard rush by David Burgess and an incompletion forced a punt, which only traveled five yards to put SC at midfield.

Read more from the original source:

Freedom runs for two second-half scores but can't overcome big hole