COPENHAGEN — Ben Freeman often zooms down a soccer field more resembling a yellow blur than a high school senior. Even on a bad day, he's still the fastest kid out there.

The thing is, Freeman didn't have very many bad days during his Copenhagen career, and this year his efforts were worthy of recognition no Golden Knights boys player had earned before.

Freeman, a three-sport athlete, is this year's Times All-North Frontier League MVP. He is the third Copenhagen player overall to earn the title in the school's honorable soccer history. Mindy Rumble was the girls MVP in 2001, and Sarah Carroll in 1996.

"He scored over 40 goals in two years," coach Eric Shambo said. "That's pretty impressive. This year he had some really beautiful goals."

Freeman generated a career-best 25 goals and eight assists for 58 points — good enough for the second-best total in the entire Frontier League.

He was just one part of an attack that posted 90 goals in 21 games. The fact that Freeman was able to produce even a fair share of such a potent offense was a feat in itself. But his drive and desire to put the ball in the net festered during his first two varsity seasons. He rode the bench most of his freshman year, and was a defender as a sophomore. Eventually Freeman's skills and energy became too beneficial to the team's success to keep in the back.

So league foes finally got a glimpse last fall of what Freeman could really accomplish, much to their dismay.

"I've always wanted to be a striker," Freeman said. "At the beginning of this season I figured I'd just be getting a lot of assists because coach wanted me to be a midfielder. I just started moving forward, getting some shots, and scoring a lot more about midseason."

And the goals — some of the team's most significant — kept piling u p. The Golden Knights split the regular-season series with Lyme, but Freeman notched all three of his team's goals against the Indians. He buried a pair of impressive strikes as Copenhagen went to LaFargeville and came from behind to clinch a second consecutive "D" Division title, and then sank the Red Knights again in the Section 3 tournament, scoring twice to lift his team to a fourth consecutive berth in the sectional semifinals.

"When we were healthy, Pat (Snyder), Ben and Dave (Hovendon) scored a lot. It was great," Shambo said. "Ben's always known what our goal is, and that's to reach the sectional finals. He knew what we needed him to do. He moved around a lot, but that's what we needed."

Freeman didn't seem to mind the uncertainty that surrounded where he'd play from game to game, or Shambo's increased expectations. The extra loud "encouragement" wasn't a problem either. Freeman expected it.

"When I got the chances to move up, I did," Freeman said. "I knew coach would be a little bit harder on me, and scream at me more because he knew what this team could do.

"Some teams put extra defenders on me, but I saw that as an opportunity for other teammates to get the ball. Everything came into place. My teammates got their chances, I got mine, and we won some games."