By Wayne E. Rivet

Staff Writer

FRYEBURG — Every fall, Coach David Turner looks at his football squad and envisions what it could be by November.

Falling just short a year ago to reaching the state championship game, the Raiders returned some talented players, but also had some big holes to fill.

Out of the gate, this team had to key elements — motivation and good chemistry.

The loss to Leavitt pushed players to work harder, especially in the weight room during the offseason.

They also developed “tight relationships” and refer to the team as “family.”

“There’s a huge difference between our team at the start of the season versus now. I would say confidence and team chemistry are the biggest differences,” senior Jagger Helwig said. “I think that’s what got us to where we are today. Everyone knows what they’re supposed to do and why they’re supposed to do it, that’s a huge reason on why we’re winning games.”

Fellow senior Michael Malia agrees. “Definitely family. The brotherhood that we’ve created in the three months of the season. Everybody’s great. We work well together. In football, you got to work as a unit, you can’t have individual performances or you won’t be successful. So, everybody has to do their jobs. We do that well.”

Junior Ty Boone echoed that thought, “Everybody knows everybody on the team. We’ve been in tough situations together, so we know how to get out of them.”

A big question mark was who would play quarterback. Coach Turner gave his two rookies the early shot. Sophomore Will Campbell had first crack at it, but was injured in the Falmouth game. In came fellow sophomore Benny Arnason. He has shown flashes of his passing talent, but remains a work in progress.

A big move came later in the season when Coach Turner moved speedy receiver Ty Boone to trigger his Wildcat package.

“Ty has just added another dimension in the backfield which makes it tougher for teams to defend. It puts a lot of pressure on them to try to defend the entire field — inside and the perimeter. It’s hard to do with the guys we have,” Coach Turner said. “All of our backs have really good vision, but Ty runs with instinct — that’s something you can’t teach. He sees things one or two moves ahead. And then, he has the speed to break it. He’s way faster than people think he is.”

Boone feels his field vision is a combination of speed and confidence.

“When I was young, I’d play in the backyard, it was just kind of free. You just had to make your way through people,” he said. “I think it just led to this this point in my life where it’s just confidence. It’s like a second nature to me.”

Boone openly embraced the switch.

“As a quarterback, I have to know where everyone is on the field, not just myself and the receivers, but now I have to take account of the O-line sometimes. I’d say that’s the challenging part,” he said. “It’s been fun, just having the ball in my hands. I’m grateful that the coaches have put me in that position. I think it’s been pretty good so far.”

Running back Malik Sow says Boone’s move to QB has been quite smooth. “Ty’s just a very smart and athletic person. He thrown some great balls, and he has made some great reads.”

“I think since the moment the coach told him there might be a possibility of him playing quarterback, he took it perfect and he worked hard. He’s done a great job. He hasn’t had any troubles, honestly.”

Watching the Raiders play, it doesn’t take very long to see why Fryeburg Academy is chasing a state title. They have size, speed and play with force.

“We tell each other before every practice and every game that toughness wins,” senior linebacker and running back Malik Sow said. “We have a great combination of speed and physicality…We just hope to play more physical than our opponents.”

Fellow running back Daniel Ruiz agrees, “We have great athletes that can run and hit people. We love it as a team. We work hard and we always want to get better so we can play our best.”

Sow and Ruiz point to the big boys up front as the key to their running success this year.

“Our big men are very, very good. They work hard. I saw most of our o-linemen and d-linemen in the gym getting better, getting stronger. They’re also on the field outside running a lot. They were getting faster. We are very proud of our big guys. They're doing a great job,” Sow said.

“I love them. We had some seniors graduate last year. We didn’t know how it was going to be this year, but we had some kids step up and they practice hard every week,” Ruiz added.

Senior captain Anton Kravchuk said the line’s success comes from hard work, good communication, a willingness to help a teammate along if he is struggling, and film study.

“Watching film, learning what they (an opponent) do actually helps a lot,” he said.

If one player makes a mental mistake, the whole line breaks down, senior lineman Holden Edenbach said. “We’ve seen each other grow and just improve every day. It’s really cool to see that.”

“We just have to come together, battle through it and impose our will,” he said. “In the huddle, we just pick each other up, make sure that we know the mistake that we made so we can correct it and just move forward.”

Senior Geza Labancz was new to the squad, but players made him instantly feel part of the team. “Right from the start, I felt I was part of the team. We went cliff jumping together, which was really fun and it was a really good bonding moment. I feel that we’ll keep in contact for years to come.”

One family. One goal — win the Gold Ball Saturday.