Olivia Oorbeck

With Jenison in the lead 9-8 toward the end of the second quarter in the opening game of the season Friday night, the Rangers needed a big play. 

It was a slow start at the beginning for both teams, but the Rangers built a rhythm toward the end of the first half. The first quarter included a Jenison fumble on the first play of the game and multiple punts by both teams as the offenses struggled with dropped passes and missed opportunities.

Senior quarterback Mason McDonald delivered with a pass to junior wide receiver Brendan Cargill for a beautiful 22-yard touchdown with 24 seconds remaining on the clock. McDonald ran it in for the two-point conversion after faking out Jenison’s defense to give FHC a 16-9 lead that the team would never relinquish in a dominant 37-9 win.

With the game deadlocked 0-0 at the end of the first quarter, senior running back JT Hartman broke the tie by running it in from the 2-yard line. Hartman caught the two-point conversion pass from McDonald. 

Hartman wasn’t shocked by the team’s somewhat slow start.

“It’s the first game of the season,” Hartman said. “The team is a little rusty on some of our plays, but overall, I think we did well.”

Jenison came back with a 3-yard touchdown by quarterback Eli Zeitman, but the two-point conversion was unsuccessful. After a Rangers punt, Jenison took the lead on a 23-yard field goal with two minutes remaining in the first half. Soon after, though, Hartman and McDonald connected for the important touchdown that gave FHC the lead for good. 

The Rangers opened up the third quarter with a 69-yard drive with Hartman increasing their lead from two yards out for a 23-9 lead. 

The heat became an issue in the second half with many athletes on both sides cramping up. FHC was already dealing with injuries from the preseason; head coach Tim Rogers knows roster size is an issue this season.

“Right now, we are not blessed with a big roster, so we are getting a lot of reps in at practice,” Rogers said. “A lot of reps means we get nicked up, nothing major except Max Richardson (out several weeks with a broken foot), but there are enough nagging injuries that there were some guys that weren’t able to play as much as they wanted to.”

Rogers was happy with how a few specific players filled in.

“Micah Meadow stepped in and did a nice job in the linebacker position, Brendan Cargill did a fantastic job playing both ways for us as a matter of fact, and Orion Roskam did a fantastic job playing both sides offensive and defensive line,” Rogers said. “Those were good JV players, and now they are becoming good varsity players.”

The Rangers defense held Jenison to little offense throughout the second half, and the offense contributed two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter. The first one came from McDonald, scoring four yards out with 10:51 left in the game. The second one would be McDonald to Cargill from 41 yards out, with 7:33 remaining.

The McDonald to Cargill connection was key to the final score. Cargill said the connection started long ago.

“We have a good connection throughout the summer from the seven-on-sevens versus other teams,” Cargill said. “We don’t have many guys, but our receivers and Mason spend a lot of time together and make it not seem different than the seven-on-seven to being out here.”

Cargill also credited an injured teammate for his performance.

“Roman [Brummel] hurt his shoulder,” Cargill said. “He is a big part of the team, and I’ve learned a lot from him this summer [like] watching him, backing him up, subbing in with him. He’s coached me up a lot, so he’s a big influence on me, and coming into this game, I had a lot of confidence because of him, so I felt that I was prepared.

Overall, Rogers was pleased with the win but knows the team has a lot to improve upon.

“I feel like we made progress this week,” Rogers said. “We are going to have to play in the box a lot better than we played today. That’s not exactly our expertise right now playing between the tackles, so we are going to have to play a lot better between the tackles.”