When Daniel Figueroa walked onto to the football field last Tuesday, a challenge lay before him and his team.

Figueroa, a freshmen, would be seeing some familiar faces from his days at Hammonton Middle School. However, they were not wearing blue and white. Their new color was red.

“I felt like I had to win to show my friends that I went to school with last year that we could win without them,” he said.

This year’s freshmen football team did above and beyond what everyone was expecting. Going undefeated all season and only being scored upon a few times, this team was the team to beat.

“We didn’t allow a point [all season] until the sixth or seventh game, so I think we did pretty good,” said Cosmo Ricca.

Last Tuesday, they won that final game against rival St. Joe, 32 to 0.

Sean Collins is confident that this experience made him a stronger player.

“I know how it feels to win, and I will work hard to feel that again,” he said.

For many on the team, football has been a part of their lives through the years, but competing at the high school level was a lot different, according to AJ Clements.

“I played before high school but this year conditioned me a lot more than I was expecting,” he said.

The team’s success on the field went beyond just winning games.  The experience helped to unify the players.

“It became like a brotherhood when we started winning together. It was fun, and we enjoyed ourselves,” said Ronald Gibson.

The coaches knew that they had a good season ahead of them even before it started.

“There is a lot of talent among the players. More that I’ve ever had at the freshmen level,” said Coach Greg Silvesti. “As a coach, I try to do the same [thing] every year. If something doesn’t go well the previous year, you try to tweak it, but overall the players were very good.”