This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Schools

Colonials Hopeful for Repeat

The Freehold Boro football program looks to build on recent success.

Things did not look good for the Freehold Boro Colonials when they started the 2010 football season 0-2.

What happened afterward, however, was another step in the right direction of a football program that has been on the rise as of late.

Freehold went on to win ten straight games -- including playoff victories over Neptune, Wall, and eventually, Middletown South in the finale -- to take the Central Jersey Group III crown.

Find out what's happening in Freeholdwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

This season, under first-year head coach David Ellis, the Colonials will look to continue to progress and challenge for a title once again.

“I think we are going to rely on the same things that we’ve had here,” Ellis said. “And that is toughness discipline and hard work.”

Find out what's happening in Freeholdwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Although Ellis admits he has a much younger and more inexperienced squad than last year’s title-winning team, he believes there is no reason for them not to be competitive.

“If we can focus on taking care of those intangible factors, we can have success, and eventually a championship,” he said.

Freehold Boro will open the season with home games against Matawan Regional and Monmouth Regional, but their toughest task of the year will be back to back games against Red Bank Catholic and Neptune, who they eliminated in the first round of the playoffs last season.

The Colonials will look to build off of their 10-game win streak that ended last season, as well.

“It was a nice streak and a good run last year. But I would say 17 or 18 of those guys graduated." Ellis said. "We have a lot of guys that are making a transition into a starting role. We’re focusing on making that transition and constantly getting better every day.”

Ellis also mentioned that the weakness so far for Freehold Boro has been the line play on both sides of the ball.

“We have to get better on the lines on both sides of the ball,” he said. “Our defensive line has some experience, so we need to see improvement there, and our offensive line has five new guys, so they need to come together as a unit and start to gel.”

The Colonials will open the season at home against Matawan Regional, Saturday, Sept. 10 at 1 p.m.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?