South Walton handily gets third straight “Battle of the Bay” win over Freeport

By REID TUCKER
Back in 2012 Freeport was riding high with a 41-7 victory against arch-rival South Walton; on the night of Oct. 2, 2015, the Seahawks returned the favor with a 41-8 win of their own.
South Walton was dominant after the start of the second half, turning what looked to be a narrowing 14-8 halftime lead into blowout by the time the fourth quarter rolled around.
The Bulldogs were hanging tough early on, with Austin Vinson scoring on a 12-yard run at the end of a long drive with 2:49 to go in the second quarter. Freeport, which hosted this year’s edition of “The Battle of the Bay,” even had a spot of luck too, when what would have been a 52-yard Seahawk touchdown pass get called back on an ineligible receiver penalty. But that combination of guts and moderately good fortune only held up South Walton for another quarter before the bottom fell out in the fourth, when the Seahawks scored an unanswered three touchdowns to tie up a win.
Joe Ledo-Massey led the Seahawks’ charge and that by a long shot, carrying the ball 14 times for a staggering 157 yards and three touchdowns; he added another score to the tally on a 36-yard pass to Jireh Crittenden. Starting quarterback Dillon Bates accounted for South Walton’s other two touchdown strikes, a pair of the 9-of-13 passes he completed to total 138 yards on the night.
Zack Seay was Freeport’s leading rusher with 17 carries for 73 yards, but Chris Decker would have surpassed him had it not been for a loss of almost 20 yards toward the close of Q3. Decker was hit hard by several Seahawk defenders and driven well back of the line of scrimmage all the way to the Bulldogs’ own 13-yard line, forcing a turnover on downs. South Walton was already ahead 21-8 by then, after touchdown runs of 10 and 20 yards from Ledo Massey and the touchdown pass between him and Crittenden, with Austin Garofalo ably putting in every point-after kick.
The fourth quarter was when most of the action took place, as South Walton started on its own 30 and in four plays was in the end zone thanks to determined runs from Ledo-Massey and a 35-yard scoring pass from Bates to John Woolf. Garofalo’s kick was good, and South Walton led by three touchdowns with a score of 28-8 with most of the period left to play.
It turns out the Seahawks would make good use of every bit of the remaining time, as their tenacious defense stripped the ball from Decker during Freeport’s next possession and took over once more on the 13-yard line. Bates completed a 13-yard pass to Garofalo, who again served up a good point-after kick, for the 35-8 lead. Freeport had to start on its own 16 after that, and no-gain runs, a false start penalty and a QB sack pushed the line back to the 8, with the Bulldogs eventually punting from the 10-yard line.
The Seahawks struck again soon thereafter, with Crittenden making an incredible kickoff return all the way down to the 20-yard line – the perfect setup for Ledo-Massey to add his last TD of the contest on a 24-yard sprint straight up the middle of the Freeport defensive line. South Walton went ahead 41-8 with 5:54 remaining in the game, but Freeport was again forced to punt before getting in striking distance on the ensuing possession. After that, the Seahawks were content to leisurely move the ball just past midfield before allowing time to run out in order to collect the win.