Rain or shine, there is no season like football season, and in Ranger Country, football season is what brings everyone together. Last night FHC took on Jenison in a heated out-of-conference matchup to kick off the school year right. 

Even with it being the first game of the season, the Rangers did not disappoint; FHC won 29-14 over the Jenison Wildcats, giving the boys their first win so far. 

“I think we started off great, our defense had them on their heels, and Justin leading our offense got it done,” senior Raymond Cargill said. “The second half was not great, and we can definitely improve on finishing games.” 

The first quarter of the game was filled with action; although the Wildcats thought they would be able to take the lead early in the game, five minutes in, senior Dom Schipani intercepted the ball to stop the Wildcats in their tracks. Following this, junior Ty Hudkins got it done and scored the Ranger’s first touchdown of the night. With still 6:42 minutes left in the first, FHC had secured the early lead of 8-0. However, this play wouldn’t be the end of the first quarter’s action.

One of the Ranger’s upcoming stars, sophomore Max Richardson, got the ball moving once again for FHC getting the team the first down they needed to keep them in scoring position. Five minutes after the night’s first score, junior Mason McDonald scored for the Rangers. With a solid kick from FHC’s newest kicker, senior Andrew Novay, the Rangers would go into the second quarter leading Jenison 15-0. 

After a big first quarter right out of the gates, it was clear to players like Dom that the Rangers did not show up to mess around. 

“I thought we had a lot of energy and momentum at the beginning which gave us a chip on our shoulder for the rest of the game and we didn’t look back,” Dom said. 

Although the second quarter started out slow for the Rangers, they knew exactly what to do when it was time to get down to business. The team was at third and nineteen with 4:50 minutes left in the half when Ty got a first down; after a third and eleven first down attempt following his first down, Ty scored his second touchdown of the night bumping the Ranger’s lead to 22-0. 

After Jenison was stopped on the kick return by Raymond and had an incomplete pass on third and twelve the half was over and the Rangers still were leading with a clean 22-0.

The third quarter kicked off after a slight halftime break and FHC was not ready to give up the lead they had worked to secure in the first half. Starting the third quarter was a little slow, but all was changed with 6:46 left in the quarter when senior Sam Sneider carried the Rangers to their fourth touchdown, changing the score to 29-0. 

Jenison turned the tables at this point, with 1:49 left in the third when they scored, putting the Wildcat’s first game points on the board. This excitement would not last for long though; the Rangers got the turnover before the end of the quarter which positioned them on the forty-fifth-yard line. 

The fourth quarter is when the game really heated up as Jenison got closer to scoring position. With 7:51 left on the clock, the ball goes from Jenison’s side to the Rangers, then back to Jenison again in five minutes. The chain was broken though when Jenison scored for the second time and dropped the Ranger’s lead to 29-14.

FHC concluded the game with not only its first win of the season but also a solid showing to give other teams an idea of the beast of a team FHC produced this year. The Rangers are now 1-0 for the season in overall play, and hopefully, they will add to their list of victories next week at 7:00 PM on Thursday, September 1, when they travel to Portage Central to take on the Mustangs. 

“I think the team played really well overall, we started off a bit slow but once we got on a roll there wasn’t much they could do to stop us,” senior Michael Campbell said.