FREEDOM — The Freedom Irish football team is a perfect 5-0 to start their 2022 season.
There's no luck needed for the Irish as they have been dominant in every game this season and have an average margin of victory of 40 points over their opponents.
“They care, they have a strong desire to win and get better each week and that’s what it takes,” said Freedom head coach Clint Kriewaldt.
Given a lot of players on the team play both ways, the Irish credit their conditioning for a lot of their success.
“We tell them they got to go every snap in practice 100%, that’s their conditioning and if they’re not doing that, they’re not training themselves properly,” Kriewaldt said. “You can’t turn it on Friday night. If you don’t hustle in practice, every snap during the week, you can’t just do that in the game.”
On offense, they have some playmakers. Senior running back Carter Kriewaldt is averaging 11 yards per carry and has 14 total touchdowns.
“He’s a great guy to have on the team,” said senior quarterback Matt Wyngaard. “He makes it easy for me. Hand the ball off to him, he makes big plays. It’s great.”
“I like getting the football, so anything I can do to help the team, I will do,” said Carter Kriewaldt.
In his first year under center for the Irish, senior quarterback Matt Wyngaard has taken command of the offense. He’s completing 67 percent of his passes with 12 touchdowns and only two picks.
“He’s going through his reads, he’s going through his progressions and he’s making good decisions,” said the Irish head coach. "Defensively, he’s a beast. There’s not too many times you see a combination of starting quarterback and starting outside linebacker.”
Those two guys provide firepower on offense, but they also shine on a defense that has only allowed more than 7 points in one game this year.
“We always pride ourselves on defense,” said Clint Kriewaldt. “They play hard. A big thing is we always encourage 11 hats and make sure we got 11 hats to the party every snap. That’s all it is, is hustle and attitude.”
The Irish have a grueling four game stretch against conference opponents coming up, but they’re ready for the challenge.
“I think that’s a big help, having good competition throughout the season, that’s good for our postseason too, because we’re going to be ready for once its comes to postseason because we’ll be ready to go.”
The Irish look to go 6-0 this Friday night at Luxemburg-Casco.
