Last Tuesday night, boys JV soccer faced off against the Byron Center—one of the few teams that switched conferences this fall. The Bulldogs moved from a challenging OK green conference last year to now competing in the OK white, therefore forcing the Rangers to come out strong in order to welcome the new opponent.

Both teams were able to foil each other’s plans from the start making the first half a back and forth battle. However towards the end of the first half the Rangers were able to start picking the Bulldogs defense apart and generate some dangerous attacks. Finally, in the last ten minutes of the half, Byron Center’s defense made their first big error, resulting in a Rangers penalty kick. Freshman center back Andrew Schepel stepped up and drilled the shot right past the Bulldogs goalie, putting the boys up 1-0 going into halftime.

To start the second half, the Rangers tried to kill Byron Center’s hope from the beginning. The Bulldogs refused to back down, trying to control the midfield and take over the game for themselves. However sophomore Tyler Poth stepped up big for the Rangers this game in the midfield, being able to play “box to box” and make an impact on both offense and defense for the boys. The Rangers were able to shut down any and all chances the bulldogs had, and steadily closed out the game with a solid 1-0 win.

Following the boys fourth straight win in a row, this puts their record at 4-2 for the season and 3-2 in their conference. The Rangers attempt to keep their hot streak alive facing off against a cross town rival Forest Hills Northern Huskies this Thursday, September 23 at 5:00pm at Northern stadium.