Freeman tops Castlewood, advances to Class 9A state championship

FREEMAN — The Freeman Flyers are headed back to their second home — the DakotaDome.

Freeman has enjoyed recent success with co-ops, including winning multiple state championships, and won last season’s Class 9AA title as Freeman/Marion/Freeman Academy.

But for the first time since 1999, the Flyers will play at the DakotaDome after knocking off Castlewood 54-26 in the Class 9A semifinals on Friday. Freeman (11-0) will play Bennett County (10-1) on Nov. 12 in the Class 9A state championship.

“It's been 27 years since we won one,” Freeman coach Dustin Tschetter said. “It's been a decade plus since we were on our own. So, this is pretty special. We got four of us coaches that played back in the ‘90s. So, we're going back to what we'd call our second home. We're looking forward to it, and hopefully we can finish it.”

The Flyers are headed back to the DakotaDome after another impressive victory. Freeman received touchdowns from multiple players, bottled up dynamic quarterback Kamden Keszler and is the last undefeated team in Class 9A.

“We talked about it all week, winning the trenches is going be who's going to win this game, and we thought we were the better team up front,” Tschetter said. “So, we had to physically get after them and control that line of scrimmage.”

Keszler, a future Augustana University football player, put Castlewood on the board first with a five-yard touchdown run on the opening drive. From there, however, the Flyers took off.

“We kind of got smashed in mouth early,” Freeman junior Axle Schultz said. “We just came back as a team."

Freeman quarterback Tayden Kerrigan hit Easton Tschetter for a 33-yard touchdown reception and Schultz busted loose for a 56-yard touchdown run, taking a 14-6 lead after the first quarter.

Keszler cut the deficit to 14-12 with a 19-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter, but Freeman piled up 28 straight points for a 42-12 advantage.

Kerrigan hit Alaric Knittel and Logun Pankratz for third-quarter touchdowns, extending the lead to 26-12. Freeman received the second-half kickoff, drained nearly six minutes off the clock and capped the drive with a Kerrigan-to-David Walter touchdown pass, extending its lead to 34-12. 

“That was huge,” Dustin Tschetter said. “We finished the half of the touchdown, came out of the half, got another touchdown, extended that to a three-score lead, and then we made them chase us. And more importantly, it was a six-seven-minute drive to score to start the half. So that really burns some clock, and you're really shortened the game down.”

Keszler momentarily stopped the bleeding with a kickoff return for a touchdown, cutting the deficit to 42-18. Tschetter's touchdown run pushed it back to 48-18 entering the fourth quarter.

In the fourth quarter, Kerrigan added another rushing touchdown and Castlewood’s Weston Morehouse scored a later touchdown to reach the final margin.

Keszler, an all-state football and basketball player, was held in check for most of the night but earned the respect of the Flyers.

“Incredible athlete, incredible player,” Dustin Tschetter said. “He's everything that we thought he was going to be. He made some plays, but we knew he was going to make plays, and how we responded was great. Best of luck to him. He's going to have a good career in college.”

Freeman, which also defeated Castlewood in the Class B state boys basketball championship in March, will now play Bennett County in Class 9A state championship.

Freeman’s last state championship in 1999 capped off a four-peat, and the Flyers can add another state championship with a win on Nov. 12.

“It’s awesome,” Schultz said. “We have awesome football in this town, and everybody loves football.”