Lacing up their skates, four Freedom athletes get ready to take the ice. Sophomores Matthew Keller and Marc Evans, accompanied by seniors Sam Romutis and Riley Adams all co-op with the Central Valley hockey team since Freedom doesn’t have enough players to constitute a team itself.

Last year, Freedom had a co-op with Central Valley, too, whereas the year before the agreement was with Blackhawk. Within two seasons, the team itself has improved tremendously. Last season, the Warriors finished with only six wins out of 19 games, but already this season they’ve almost met their win total from the previous year with a current record of 5-2-1. The “tie” was an overtime shootout loss in their game against Bishop Canevin on Nov. 19.

On Nov. 1, the team took on Trinity at their home rink of Brady’s Run. In the first period, Trinity started things off with a goal, but Central Valley returned the favor with two goals for the Warriors. The second period told the same story, with Trinity up another goal but Central Valley scoring another two afterwards.

The first goal in the second period was scored by Adams who also had two assists for the evening.

“It felt great because it was my first goal of the season and I hope I score many more,” Adams said. “All I was thinking was go in, work hard, get the W, go home.”

The Warriors went on to score another goal in the second period, with an additional goal scored in the third. Trinity had the lead 5-4 in the third, then Central Valley tied it with 30 seconds left, taking the game to overtime.

No goals were scored in overtime, so the tie-breaker was left up to a shootout where Central Valley prevailed marking the third win for the Warriors thus far in the season. In the net for the Warriors was Romutis, who was admittedly nervous during the shootout.

“I’ve never been in a shootout in my career so I was pretty excited but also really nervous,” Romutis said. “I just got dialed in and did what I could do to win it for us. It was a huge relief after Mitch [freshman Mitchel Gagne] scored to win the game for us.”

Four days later, the team traveled to Ringgold in the hopes of another victory tallied on to the count for the season. With one goal in the first and second period for both teams, the third period became the decision-maker.

Central Valley turned on the heat in the rink, scoring three goals within four minutes.

Their last two games were not as successful as Trinity or Ringgold, for against Burrell and Bishop Canevin, the team lost by a total of seven points between the two games.

On Nov. 12, Burrell hosted the Warriors, where they lost 1-7 with the lone goal scored in the first period. A week later, the team lost to Bishop Canevin 5-6 in a shootout, with goals scored in the second and third periods by Central Valley players.

Their season will continue to progress throughout the beginning of February. Nov. 27 is the next game for the team at Trinity for hopefully another win.

“We didn’t play our best game last time we met them [Trinity] but they are a good team and we are confident in ourselves,” Romutis said. “We’ll let our play do the talking.”