Freeman centers Dragons’ attack

Matthew Freeman epitomizes what makes Junction City football such an esteemed program.

Freeman is tough, hard-working, athletic, and able to make adjustments when the moment demands such an act. Those aforementioned intangibles are also an apropos description of what makes Dragon football so special.

Under the tutelage of coach David Carpenter, the program at Junction City has enjoyed a remarkable run of success. Individuals such as Freeman are among the main reasons why the Dragons are accustomed to winning.

The 6-1, 220 pound senior excelled at whatever duty he was asked to assume this season. Freeman factored greatly in helping a young Dragon squad finish second in the 8-2A, and advance to round two of the Class 2A state playoffs. Due to his outstanding play and leadership, Freeman is a finalist for News-Times Football Player of the Year.

Offensively, he was a key lineman for a team that had over 1,900 yards rushing and 1,513 passing. According to Carpenter, Freeman was solid not only in every game, but on basically every play.

“Very rarely did he have a bad snap on the offensive side of the ball,” the coach said. “We go to these clinics and people talk about how many bad snaps a player has during a game. Matthew didn’t have many of them. He takes pride in what he was doing and how he was able to not have many bad snaps.”

Perhaps what’s more impressive about Freeman is his tenure as a starting offensive lineman. In recent seasons, Junction City was able to stockpile state titles because of a deep, talented assembly of players. Nonetheless, Freeman easily proved his worth. Since his sophomore season, Freeman showcased that he too was an elite performer.

“He has started for us for three years on the offensive line. That’s a tough feat to accomplish,” Carpenter said. “With all the seniors we’ve had the previous two seasons, for him to be able to start is impressive.”

Freeman was just as effective and accomplished on defense this season.

From the linebacker position, he amassed 131 tackles. He had 20 solo tackles with 12 1/2 resulting in a loss of yards. Freeman led the Dragons in fumble recoveries with four. The 2A All-State selection also recorded an interception.

“On the defensive side of the ball he was the most experienced linebacker that we had. We had to assign him more of the reading portion of our defense this season,” Carpenter said. “That allowed us to cut Terrell Gibson loose to make plays. We asked Matthew to do the reading because he was the experienced linebacker. But he still made a lot of tackles for us.

“He broke Josh Armstrong’s record for tackles in a season. He did a great job for us on defense.”