Fremd’s defensive line — it’s relentless

Fremd nose tackle John Stevens broke through the line, grabbed the fumbled football on the run and took it to the end zone.

The next play defensive tackle Alex Foreman’s speed rush surprised the quarterback, who fell and rose gingerly on a tweaked ankle.

That was just near the end of Monday’s practice. Having something on the line truly inspires the Vikings’ defensive linemen. Fremd is off to a 2-0 start aided by a defense that’s allowed a total of 94 yards rushing.

“I preach ‘relentless.’ We’re going to attack you from every way we can, and we’re going to be nonstop. That’s foot on the gas, no breaks, and we’re just going to go,” said Fremd defensive coordinator Marcquel Hawkins.

That is just peachy with Foreman, Stevens, and defensive ends Anthony D’Ambrosio and Will Klimas, all between 196 and 218 pounds of lean and mean.

“We don’t necessarily have the biggest guys, but we ask them to play nasty and with technique,” said second-year Fremd defensive line coach Mike Constantino, a 2017 graduate of the Palatine school.

“We take what a lot of people would play at linebackers and we convert them down to defensive ends,” said head coach Lou Sponsel. “We take our defensive ends and bump them down to tackles. We want speed. We want guys that have tenacity out there.”

There’s also the specialist, the goal-line, short-yardage crusher, Owen Jakubczak, a two-year starting offensive lineman.

“Because I’m bigger, I’m like 6-4, 260, they have me, like, mess stuff up when (teams) start running the ball,” he said.

In Fremd’s 4-3 defense, the linemen communicate with each other not only to make plays themselves, but to occupy blockers to let the Vikings’ linebackers roam. Outside linebackers such as Luke McIlhon and Tom O’Brien, and middle linebacker Troy Pepe.

Fremd’s defensive linemen will go helmet-to-helmet but get a kick out of their stunting game, those confusing gap-cuts and circle combinations that put offensive linemen on their heels and spring linebackers free.

“Everything we do with our stunts allows them to go make those big plays, and sometimes it allows us to make those big plays because (opponents are) so concerned about how good our ‘backers are,” said Stevens, proud to call himself “a disrupter.”

“I have a big thing about trust, trusting the guys next to me,” Foreman said. “When they’re playing their best I play my best, and then when the linebackers are backing me up I play my best. I think trust is the big thing, I think it’s our glue.”

Foreman credited Constantino for returning a love of football Foreman said he had lost. It’s contagious on Fremd’s defensive front.

“I love to be out there because I help my ‘backers, I help the people behind me, I help the guys right next to me and I just have a lot of fun,” D’Ambrosio said.

Still, they can’t play willy nilly outside of a system. D’Ambrosio and Klimas explained that starting on Monday, just 15 minutes a day outside of practice, they’ll study their upcoming opponent’s schemes and plays, their offensive line techniques.

They’ll view Hudl video and check the “installs” of opponent formations provided by Fremd’s coaching staff and reflected in that week’s practices.

By Friday, their new knowledge backed by athleticism and spirit, these Vikings are ready to plunder.

“I just love the freedom that we have with it and that we just get to hit people every day,” Klimas said. “Just being able to fly around with my teammates, it’s the best thing in the world.”