What can Brown do? Everything for Freeport!
Freeport's Jere Brown finds daylight in the first quarter against Farmingdale. (Nov. 18, 2010) Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Triple-threat Jere Brown returned, received and rushed Freeport to a three-peat. He also wrapped up.
The top-seeded Red Devils earned their third straight Nassau Conference I football title with a 36-33 win over No. 3 Farmingdale in last night's county final at Hofstra's Shuart Stadium. Freeport is the first team to win three straight Conference I titles since Hempstead won five in a row from 1984-88.
The Red Devils (10-1) will try to defend their Long Island Class I title next Friday when they will play the winner of tonight's Floyd-Sachem North Suffolk Division I final. Farmingdale ends its season 8-3. Freeport avenged its 42-39 Week 3 loss to Farmingdale.
Farmingdale had the ball with 48 seconds remaining, facing a fourth-and-7 from the Freeport 36. Sal Tuttle took the snap and retreated all the way behind midfield before scrambling for 6 yards. The referees measured, but Tuttle was a yard short.
Brown scored the winning touchdown on a 4-yard fade to the left corner of the end zone on a pass from Isaiah Barnes with 2:43 left. It was the culmination of a 13-play, 70-yard drive. Barnes ran in the two-point conversion to give Freeport a three-point lead.
For Brown, it was his third touchdown of the game. He also reached the end zone on a 43-yard punt return to open the scoring and a 22-yard pass from Barnes (three TD passes) that made it 21-14 2:45 before halftime. Brown had 118 all-purpose yards (69 on punt returns, 26 receiving and 24 rushing). He also stuffed Brian Prendergast on a two-point conversion catch to keep it a five-point game before Freeport's final go-ahead drive.
Tuttle played with his right shoulder wrapped. The Dalers' QB, who injured his throwing shoulder in last week's win over Oceanside, finished 13-for-17 for 206 yards and a TD, and rushed for 74 yards and a score on 12 carries.
He completed a 32-yard pass to Prendergast and then scrambled for 39 to set up Kevin Wahl's 1-yard TD run with 9:21 to play that gave Farmingdale a 33-28 lead. Jeff Williams scored on a 7-yard screen from Barnes to give Freeport a 28-27 lead on the preceding drive. Tuttle had given Farmingdale a 27-21 lead with an 11-yard scramble to the front left pylon at the 8:06 mark of the third quarter.
In the first quarter, Barnes threw incomplete on fourth-and-6 from the 13, but a pass interference call on Brown gave Freeport a first-and-goal from the 6. Two plays later Barnes fumbled on a QB sneak and Carl Brescia recovered for Farmingdale on its 4. The Dalers went three-and-out and punting to Brown, who caught the ball on his 43 with plenty of room to run. He took it down the left sideline and then cut back inside at the 10 en route to the end zone.
Farmingdale evened things up on its ensuing possession. Tuttle hit Pat Starke on a double move to the left side for a 10-yard TD.
Brown returned Farmingdale's kickoff 69 yards to the Farmingdale 26, and Dan Olivier capped the brief three-play drive with a 1-yard TD plunge. Prendergast responded with a 47-yard burst to pay dirt with Kevin Wahl as his lead blocker to tie it at 14 with 6:21 left in the second quarter.
But there was Brown again. He made a jumping grab from Barnes on a 22-yard wheel route to make it 21-14 with 2:45 left in the half. Just 1:20 later, Wahl ran 30 yards up the gut untouched on a third-and-1 to tie the score for the third time in the first half.
