As the sun shone and a breeze traveled through the air, the varsity boys lacrosse team took the field this Saturday, April 15. The boys were victorious after going head-to-head with Okemos High School; the final score was an astounding 18-6.

This was the Rangers’ highest-scoring game; various boys had goals. The top scorer, a senior attackman and captain, Jonah McConnell, scored four goals and attained three assists. Following not far behind, also a senior attackman and captain, Graham Bennett, had three goals. Senior midfielder Jake Koning had three goals as well. two goals were scored each by junior midfielder and captain Nolan Hartl and senior midfielder Magnus Salmon. Both junior midfielders, Mickey Mehney, and Tyler Nass, scored a goal of their own. Senior LSM and captain Sam Sneider added to the total, bringing the score to 17, and senior midfielder Collin Webb got it to 18. 

These points did not come out of nowhere, though. The Rangers prepared and made goals for how they wanted the game to go. 

“We focused on how the team as a whole could send a message to all the other teams in the conference and show them how dominant we are,” sophomore attackman Orion Roskam said. “Since Okemos is a Division 2 school, we wanted them to see how we could defeat them.”

Not only did their grit and drive help them beat Okemos, but so did their environment. They had a much larger audience show up; the sun was beaming, and the weather was terrific. The team was happy to be home once more, according to coach Shira.

“The team felt good. It was a beautiful day, we had a great fan base show up, and it was nice to be back in Ranger Stadium.”

With all these factors contributing to their win, the boys held nothing back. Despite when they were faced with something unknown, the guys came through. Not only did they work well as players, but they worked ecstatically with each other; teamwork was a large part of this game.

“Our offense did amazingly this game,” Shira said. “Okemos played a zone defense, and that was something new that our offense hadn’t seen in a game yet this year, so it was very promising to see them move the ball as well as we did and find the open man. Half of our goals were assisted, which is a good team offense.”

As always, with good comes bad. Overall, the boys played exceptionally well. They worked together, saw the field, tried new things, and put effort into most of the game. The rough patch was that they could not keep up the energy and bring hype throughout the entire duration of the game. Freshman attackman Henry McNamara had his input on the competition. 

“I think our team needs to improve on not slacking during the last two quarters,” he said. “We are supposed to come to play all four, and we did the opposite.”

Bringing it all was one big thing for the team to work on. The boys should make efforts to show that they do want to play and that they want to play for a purpose. They should compete like it is the state championship.

Along with mentality and finishing a game, Shira had some thoughts of his own. 

“The defense needs to drastically improve for us to make a run come playoff time. We have a lot of talent and experience defensively, but it’s just not clicking for us right now,” he exclaimed, “and that’s something we need to figure out as a group, coaches, and players for what we’re going to do going forward.”

Progressing forward, the team will stay at home once more. The guys will play Grandville on Tuesday, April 18; the face-off will begin at 7:00 p.m.