Thank you again to all of our very generous sponsors and benefactors for providing us with amazing prizes for our Tricky Tray and Concert Ticket Raffles for LAX Day! Below please find a list of the lucky winners!!

Also, a HUGE thank you to Lucy Bush for pulling it all together. Great job!!

Thank you to all of the players, parents, families and fans that made LAX Day 2013 the best yet! Not only did we have incredible weather, we also enjoyed the camaraderie of our young laxers who we hope stick with game and represent Freedom in the near future!

For those of you who bought 50-50 tickets, we thank you for your support. The winner was present at the drawing, so we do not have a ticket number to post.

We will have a complete list of our Tricky Tray and Concert Ticket Raffle winners online soon.

Please join us for LAX Day 2013!!

FINAL LAX Day 4-27-2013.pdf 

We are still seeking Vendors and Donations for the Tricky Tray. Please contact FreedomLAXCLub@gmail.com for details

The Pates avenged their 9-6 loss from a year ago by taking control of the game early and never trailing. The offense was  balanced with six different Pates getting into the stat sheet Skae 4g2a,Bush 3a,Driscoll 2g2a,Roche 2g3a,Vanbuskirk 2g, and Fodale 1g. The defense was led by Goalie Hunter Hostage who had 18 saves on the day with most of Danville's goals coming on turnovers or man up situations. The play was chippy and the Pates were able to kill many penalties including one when they were down 2 men. Gugliuzza, Gawlik, Baughman, Gubich played strong on defense.

It might have been the first time the programs were meeting in varsity boys lacrosse, but Freedom andLiberty high schools didn't need to be told what was at stake.

"It was probably the most excited I've seen this team," Freedom junior Ryan Skae said.

And whatever excitement was built up prior to the game was still bursting out of the Patriots after the final horn sounded in a 14-4 victory over the rival Hurricanes on this afternoon at Hanover Elementary School.

"Considering it's an intense rivalry, I thought they managed to control their emotions really well and play the way they've been taught to play," first-year Freedom coach Patrick Conroy said.

The game contained what fans might expect from schools so close in proximity: hard hitting and a couple chippy moments. But throughout, Freedom (4-1, 2-0), a program with a varsity season under its belt, seemed a class above Liberty, which is in its first varsity campaign.

Skae got the Patriots started with a pair of goals in the opening five minutes, the second of which came off an extra pass from Alex Bush, who was camped in front of the cage.

Scores by Jordan Fodale and Ivor Corlette made it 4-0 for the Patriots with 4:41 left in the first quarter.

Liberty (1-3, 1-2) showed signs of life when John Gregoris scored on a feed from Matt Kantner and then Matt Tkacik drove home a shot from long distance to cut the deficit to 4-2.

However, after the teams traded goals to make it 5-3, the Patriots scored three unanswered (Skae, James Rich and Bush) to seize control of the game.

"I thought we performed pretty well," said Skae, who led all players with four goals and four assists. "In the beginning we really stepped it up and we kind of slowed down a little bit. To compete with the other teams in the LVC I think we'll need to step it up a little bit, but I think we're improving every game this season."

Liberty coach Joe Sexton said his team's struggles came from its inability to control the ball.

"I think we moved the ball fairly well when we could hang on to it," said Sexton, whose group was troubled by missed groundballs and turnovers. "One of the biggest problems was keeping possession of the ball. If you can't keep possession, you'll never win a game that way."

Liberty goalie Kevin Swain (12 saves) did an admirable job in the cage, but the Patriots' barrage of 34 shots took its toll.

Freedom iced the game with a 3-0 third quarter, which was highlighted by a tremendous goal from Brendan Driscoll in which he made a lunging one-handed grab of a Skae pass and scored.

Driscoll finished with three goals and three assists, and Bush had two goals and two assists. Freshman Hunter Hostage notched six saves for the Patriots.  

"It's great to have crosstown rivals and a lot of these kids know each other, so that's always a fun thing," said Sexton, who has been working to get lacrosse backed by the Bethlehem Area School District for 10 years, starting with the Liberty girls team.

Their club statuses not withstanding, Chapter 1 of a new volume in another Bethlehem rivalry was written today ... and it was signed by the Patriots.

Kyle Craig-Express Times

Freedom dominated from start to finish.

Freedom Scoring

Ryan Skae 5G 1A

Alex Bush 2G 4A

Kyle Roche 1G 5A

brendan Driscoll 2G 2A

Devon Hall 3G 1A

JJ Rich 1G 2A

Nathan VanBuskirk 2G

JR Corlette 1G 1A

Jordan Fodale 1G 1A

Pierce Giamportone 1G

Nick Kopko 1G

Hunter Hostage 2 Saves

The Game was never in question as the patriots scored 13 unanswered goals in the first 2 qaurters. That scoring avalanche was led by captain Ryan Skae with 9 points(5g4a), freshman attack Alex Bush with a 5 point debut(2g3a) and Kyle Roche who celebrated his 17th birthday with a pair of goals and assists.