The boys soccer team overcame one of their biggest challenges last Thursday, beating FHN 2-1 in one of the biggest rivalry games of the season.
At the beginning of the game, the Rangers were looking rough. They were struggling to maintain possession and connect passes. This was the game they’d been looking forward to for months and now the day had come, you could see the nerves were getting to them.
“We knew it was a big rivalry match,” said senior captain Matthew Taylor, “and coming after a pretty tough loss against GRC, we knew we needed to make a statement with a big win against Northern.”
In the first twenty minutes, FHN was clearly more comfortable. They were building out of the back, they were switching the field, and they were making effective plays going through the midfield. With 32 minutes left in the first half, one of these chances led to a foul on FHC giving FHN a free kick about 40 yards out. Senior captain Grayson Traynor took the free kick and played a high lob pass right into the middle of FHC’s box. The ball floated overheads of multiple FHC defenders to the head of Northern senior captain Grant Ferguson whose header missed barely over the crossbar.
Northern kept most of the possession as they moved over the 20-minute mark. They had a few more chances and shots but still the Rangers were holding up and keeping the ball out of the back of their net.
Late in the second half, the Rangers started to look more comfortable. They were finally connecting passes, maintaining more possession, and were more composed on the ball than how they originally started. They were building out of the back when they delivered a great through ball to senior Bennet Nieuwkoop. This was their best chance all game until FHN senior defender Jaden Polizzi got in front and slowly won the ball back putting an end to the Rangers attack.
The Rangers had turned the game around at this point with freekicks on net, breakaway chances by senior forward Chris Dongmo, as well as shots from senior midfielder Nick Bergman barely missing the target. Then with around 17 minutes left in the half, an intercepted pass from the Huskies led to a two-on-two to net with senior forwards Webb and Dongmo sprinting down the field resulting in a shot from Kyle Webb barely missing wide in possibly their best chance of the game so far. While the Huskies found themselves on defense more often in the second part of this first half, a series of plays found themselves with a throw-in down deep into the Rangers’ territory. Traynor took the throw-in for the huskies and heaved it right into the middle of the box. It was deflected around a bunch of players’ feet to where it eventually ended up in the back of the Rangers net. The Huskies took the lead, leading 1-0.
The Huskies celebrated this moment enthusiastically, but their glory was cut short off the very next kick-off.
After the game was resumed, the Rangers played the ball back into their midfield looking for an opportunity to make an offensive play. The ball was played down the left wing to the feet of senior captain Alex Moeller who quickly advanced up the sideline beating FHN defenders left and right. He got to the corner and cut back towards the middle looking for a teammate to cross to. Making a run to the middle was Dongmo who received the cross from Moeller for a beautiful far-post finish. Not a minute after the first goal, the Rangers had tied the game back up.
The Rangers tried to maintain their momentum and use it to their advantage, as a great play led to a through ball to junior winger Dylan Buchanan resulting in a one-on-one to goal with the keeper. The FHN keeper beat Buchanan to the ball by mere inches and saved the Huskies from a potentially disastrous situation.
Both teams kept finding great chances to take the lead near the end of the first half. Another throw-in by Traynor leads to an almost identical situation from the first goal, except for an incredible finger-tip save by senior goalkeeper Lance Childers prevented FHN from capitalizing and regaining the lead.
The two rivals fought back and forth, one opportunity after another as the time ticked down in the first half. With about five minutes remaining on the clock, Webb dodged and weaved through defenders in FHN’s midfield. He was on a great run and found himself with just enough space right outside the box to where he could get a shot off. The keeper was caught flat-footed as he watched the ball fly right toward the top corner. The ball missed just barely wide and was about three or four inches from being the critical moment that would’ve led the Rangers into the lead.
More time ticked down from the clock as neither team succeeded in capitalizing. The game was getting more physical than ever as both teams showed how much they wanted to win. As a result of one of these conflicts, a yellow card was awarded to Moeller in the last minute of the half.
“Going into halftime, we knew that we were the better team,” Moeller said. “We were playing better in the first half, and we kinda had to just keep plucking away at it. We knew eventually we’d get one, it was just a matter of time.”
After both teams went back and forth with possession, failing to create many opportunities, a challenge for the ball left Ferguson injured. This was a huge problem for the Huskies because senior Grant Ferguson is known to be one of their greatest attacking weapons.
After a few minutes of back-and-forth ball movement, the Rangers found their next big chance to take the lead. A freekick by Moeller flew to the head of Taylor whose header attempt missed just inches wide of the near post.
With only a half-hour left, the Huskies found themselves with yet another freekick about fifty yards away from the goal. The ball was heaved into the box by a Husky defender, where senior captain Jonas Baar had a header attempt on target that was miraculously saved by Childers.
Another ten minutes went by, foul after foul but no goals from either side. They were now entering the final twenty minutes
A pass to Webb to the wing led to him finding himself trapped with his heels on the touchline, two opposing defenders closing in, and no other options to pass to. While it seemed like he was done for, a burst of speed and an impressive skill move from Webb got him around both defenders and led him into the middle of the field with open space. A few more strides later he was on the edge of the box. While he looked like he was going to take a shot he cut back inside and found Moeller in the box who dribbled through Northern’s last line of defense and with unparalleled composure, he scored into the bottom corner. The Rangers had taken the lead, 2-1, with only fifteen minutes left in the game.
The game was more intense than ever as the Rangers tried to maintain their lead with the Huskies attacking viciously. There was foul after foul and yellow cards were flying as the clock ticked into the single digits.
After a talk with the trainer and a bit of precautionary stretching, Ferguson came back into the game and was immediately put on the attack. Almost immediately after the substitution an effective ball was played into the feet of Ferguson led to another great shot on goal which was caught routinely by Childers, saving the Rangers from losing their lead yet again.
With around five minutes left of play, the Huskies were getting desperate. Their game plan changed to playing as many long through balls into the box as possible and the Rangers were just clearing them right back out as quickly as they came in.
With around four minutes left, in a run-in with a FHC player, Ferguson was down once again. He was escorted off the field and immediately after play resumed, the Huskies were on the attack once again.
The Rangers went into complete time-wasting mode as they passed out of the back and cleared the ball as far as they could to avoid facing the Huskies’ offense. Now with two minutes left, the whole rivalry came down to these dying moments.
Head coach Kramer was ecstatic about their victory as this win would be very big for the program moving forward.
“Well, first and foremost it’s a huge bounce-back game after a disappointing result on Tuesday,” Kramer said. “I think it gives the boys confidence knowing they can go toe to toe with anybody at any given day, so it will definitely propel them from a confidence level moving forward for the rest of the season.”
Taylor knows they still have work to do and there is always room for improvement.
“I think we need to just keep a positive mentality,” Taylor said. “We have very good talent on our team, but as long as we keep a positive mentality and play as a team, we should win games. We just need to keep that up.”
Moeller was also excited about the win.
“It’s super great, especially bouncing back after that tough loss against GRC,” Moeller said. “I mean I think at this point we’re just gonna keep moving forward and keep getting wins.”
