As FHC starts a new year, the boys freshman Rangerball team has lofty goals they aim to hit, one is to overcome their uncannily tough start as a team. The boys played on Thursday, January 5 against the Huskies of Forest Hills Northern. 

The freshmen came out fighting in a big rivalry game, and despite the significant height advantage for the Huskies, the Rangers held them to a 4-1 start. The Huskies then started to pull away at the end of the first quarter, the score after one was 12-5 in favor of Northern. Everyone has to contribute to a team of any sort. Whether this is keeping the players up and in high spirits while in a scoring drought, to getting water for players who just got off the court. The Rangers seem to do a sufficient job of this and it translates to the basketball court. Nearing the end of the second quarter with the Huskies up 20-7, and the Rangers on a scoring drought, Jackson Madigan hit a deep jumper to end a tough stretch for the freshmen. The Rangers then got a stop on the other end of the court and came back to a big three from freshman Matthew Murdock. This cut the Huskies’ lead from thirteen to eight going into halftime.

“Getting off to a slow start really hurt us, this meant we had to come back against a taller and lankier team,” said Henry McNamara. “Missed shots inside the paint also affected us because when we started to come back it meant we had to rush our shots and shoot jumpers.”

The second half showed much the same for the Rangers, missing easy buckets, and the defense not getting stops. The freshmen did however show fight and tenacity against their rivals, late in the third quarter Matthew Murdock hit another three to cut a ten-point lead to seven.

“I think our team fought hard, but I don’t think we kept our energy up and this really affected the rest of the game,” Naveen Ram said. 

As the fourth quarter neared the end, Forest Hills Northern really started to pull away from the FHC freshmen. In the end, the tougher team wins, and in this game that was the Huskies. On a high note, freshman Keyan Roelfzema hit a deep three as the buzzer went to end the game for the Rangers. The boys look to use this as motivation for the future. The freshman Rangerball team will play their next game is home on Saturday, January 7, at 1:00 against Traverse City Central.