PHOENIX FOOTBALL PLAYOFF PREVIEW
The fruits of its labor are a-plenty for the Freeman/Marion/Freeman Academy football team, which is feasting on a Great Plains Conference championship earned last week and a postseason that begins at home on Thursday against De Smet, with kickoff set for 7 p.m.
The Phoenix go into the Class 9AA playoffs riding the momentum of last week’s 34-24 win over previously undefeated and Class 9B No. 1 in Avon, now 7-1. That game was a matchup between the Great Plains Conference West No. 1 seed — Avon— and the GPC East No. 1 seed — F/M/FA —with the win giving the Phoenix the title.
Now, the Phoenix enter the postseason with a 6-2 mark and on a five-game winning streak, and they have gone largely unnoticed in the South Dakota High School Prep Media Football Poll after opening the season at the No. 5 spot (although F/M/FA did receive votes in the most recent poll and was sitting No. 5 in the coach’s poll released Monday).
Playoff picture
The Phoenix, who are nearing the conclusion of their third season as a three-school cooperative, is the No. 5 seed while Thursday night’s opponent, the Bulldogs, are No. 12.
De Smet brings a 4-4 record in the contest.
If F/M/FA beats De Smet, it will move on to the quarterfinal round next Thursday, Oct. 31 against the winner of the Hill City/Bon Homme game. Hill City is the No. 4 seed, fifth in the Class 9AA standings, and 7-1.
Bon Homme is the No. 13 seed and 3-5.
If Hill City beats Bon Homme, the Rangers would host the winner of the Phoenix/Bulldogs game next week; Hill City is located southwest of Rapid City and is a strong five-hour drive from Freeman.
If Bon Homme wins, the Cavaliers would be on the road next week at either Freeman or De Smet.
The winner of that quarterfinal game — barring an unlikely upset — will face No. 1 Parkston in the Class 9AA semifinals Friday, Nov. 8 in Parkston.
It would be a rematch Freeman/Marion/Freeman Academy would look forward to.
“Right now we’re playing our best football,” said head coach Dustin Tschetter, who admits the season didn’t begin as planned when Parkston — the defending Class 9AA champion — came to Freeman and took out the Phoenix 42-14 in the season-opener on Aug. 23.
“We didn’t start the year like we had hoped, but we have pieced things together,” Tschetter said. “Friday night (against Avon) we proved that we’re a legitimate football team; the score may not show it, but we dominated that game.”
This is the third year the Phoneix finished the regular season 6-2, and they won their first round playoff game each of the past two years before falling in the quarterfinals.
More on the season
Last week’s win over Avon was indicative of what has been a largely successful season for F/M/FA. It’s only loss other than against Parkston came against No. 3 Elkton-Lake Benton, which won 40-12 on Sept. 6. Tschetter said the showing against the Elks was not the best his team could do — by far.
“We had our chances, but it didn’t go our way,” he said. “You drop four touchdown passes it’s not going to be a good night for you. We weren’t in shape — and that’s on the coaches — and we made some changes.”
Even the following week’s game against a .500 Gayville-Volin team wasn’t a great night; the Phoenix may have put up 68 points, but the defense allowed 40.
Several adjustments followed, and things have improved since.
Post-Gayville-Volin, F/M/FA has outscored its opponents 198-39 behind a dynamic offense that includes junior quarterback Riley Tschetter, who this season has thrown for 1,955 yards and 19 touchdowns, senior Christopher Aassen, who has 618 yards and seven touchdowns receiving, and senior Dominic Sperling, who has 665 yards and 10 touchdowns rushing.
And the defense has stepped up, with senior Sawyer Wipf leading the team in tackles with 63, followed by junior Tate Sorenen’s 62 and junior Luke Peters’ 35; Peters also has a team-best five quarterback sacks, with Sorensen and Al Knittel each bringing down the quarterback twice this season.
“The last four weeks, defensively, we’ve been as good as we’ve been in this co-op,” Tschetter said. “They’ve really improved throughout the year.”
Junior Karter Weber has also been an all-around threat for the Phoenix, with 33 tackles, 442 yards and four touchdowns receiving, and another score on the ground.
And a strong freshman class has moved up the depth chart, with backup quarterback Easton Tschetter accounting for 204 yards and three touchdown passes, Tayden Kerrigan fourth on the team in tackles with 34, and Axle Schultz and David Walter have made noise late this season.
“We’ve moved some pieces around and have gotten a lot of contributions from some of our younger kids, and have found what works for us,” says Tschetter. “We’ve been tackling live for eight weeks straight.”
That paid dividends at Avon last week as the Phoenix neutralized the Pirates’ biggest threat in running back Landon Mudder. The senior may have tallied 141 yards on the ground, but did so on 29 carries, for an average of 4.9 yards per carry.
“He had to earn every yard he got,” Tschetter said.
The Phoenix will showcase all of that Thursday night against De Smet, and will need to continue to execute. The Bulldogs are bigger than any team F/M/FA has seen this season, with an offensive and defensive line that features players weighing in at 320 (and 6 feet, 8 inches), 260, 250, 240, and six others coming in at 200 lbs. plus.
“They’re going to create some problems because we’re not used to their size, but we’re not changing anything,” said Tschetter. “We’ve got nine guys — more than that — who are all working together really well, and we believe in each other. We have the talent and the speed and the athleticism to play with anybody. If we live against De Smet and we live the following week, we’re going to keep going, and maybe we get another game against Parkston, which is what we want.”
Tschetter welcomes it.
“It’s hard to keep up with us once we get going offensively — when we’re firing on all cylinders,” he says. “Right now, we’re playing as well as anybody.”
