Freeport drops second straight in Jay

JAY — For the second week in a row, Freeport had no answers.

And when the whistle blew at halftime, Shaun Arntz and Co. found themselves down two touchdowns, a deficit that proved two large in Friday’s 47-40 road loss to the Royals in Jay.

Coming off a season-best 49-point scoring outburst against Lighthouse this past week, Jay (3-4 overall) was able to replicate the performance against the Bulldogs, ranked fifth overall in Class 1A, throwing five first-half touchdown passes.

The second half was a different story, Freeport (6-2) outscoring the Royals 14-7, but even the return of senior running back Brandon Siples, who sat out the Bulldogs’ 55-12 loss to Baker this past week with an illness, wasn’t enough to get Freeport back on top.

Siples finished his night with 202 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns, including a 73-yarder, two catches for 29 yards and a score and a 31-yard touchdown pass to Trey Hinkley.

STAT OF THE NIGHT: 81

In the past two weeks, Freeport has been outscored 81-32 in the first half of losses to Baker and, now, Jay.

The Gators, ranked No. 1 in Class 1A ran up 41-12 halftime score en route to a 55-12 victory before Freeport dropped its seven-point contest to the Royals.

Although the Bulldogs have shown an ability to come from behind in games against Maclay and Walton earlier this season, multi-touchdown deficits have been their undoing.

OFFENSIVE MVP: Brandon Siples, Freeport

In scoring two touchdowns rushing and one each passing and throwing, Siples extended his season total to 23.

On the year, he has 1,545 all-purpose yards, only 512 yards shy of K’Wan Powell’s program record.

DEFENSIVE MVP: N/A

Arntz declined to tab a Defensive MVP, “being that we really didn’t defend anything all night.”

Given Siples’ numbers, it’s safe to say Jay didn’t play much defense either.

UP NEXT

The Bulldogs are off next week, but following two straight losses, they will look to right the ship against South Walton (3-4) at 7 p.m. Oct. 25 in Freeport.

NOTES

- While the Bulldogs ate their team dinner at the Cracker Barrel in Crestview, their bus driver noticed a problem with the bus. The Bulldogs had to wait an extra hour for a second bus to come pick them up and arrived at the stadium just 15 minutes before kickoff.

- Quarterback Keane Neal completed 6-of-16 passes for 84 yards and two touchdowns.

- Hinkley finished with four catches for 90 yards, including touchdown receptions of 31 and 35 yards.