On Wednesday, September 25, 2024, the JV soccer team beat the East Grand Rapids Pioneers 1-0. It was a very exciting match through all 70 minutes.
EGR started off strong with a few shots off the kickoff, but luckily, the Ranger defense was there to clear the ball out of the box.
The Rangers continued to play with a very small amount of aggressiveness. A few more corners were played into the box, and the Ranger defense did a great job of marking the defense and getting a head on the ball.
Going into halftime, it was 0-0, with the Pioneers controlling almost the entire game. The possession rate seemed to be around 35% for the Rangers and 65% for the Pioneers. The boys knew they could do better and would find that out later in the 2nd half.
Captain Joe Emerson had some words going into halftime for the boys.
“Keep marking tight, don’t give them any space to create individually, and limit our own errors, and then just take whatever chance we got, which we did in the first half, just couldn’t finish.”
The next half started way better for them. The team was pressing higher and was playing way more aggressively, which then resulted in winning the ball and giving more options to create.
With about 20 minutes left, the boys could feel a goal coming, but they couldn’t finish their shots. There was a very good possession when it finished with a Nick Jovanovic shot, which went wide left.
With 8 minutes left in the game, Darshan Khandavalli finally put one in the back of the net. Everyone on the team dog-piled on top of each other, celebrating their win.
The final score was EGR Pioneers 0, Forest Hills Central Rangers 1.
Emerson had some words after the game about the result of the game and the first time the 2 teams met up.
“The first game against EGR, we were a bit less organized, lacked clinicality, and played a lot more defense. Today we were able to control most of the game, move the ball well, and limit their chances offensively.,” said Emerson. “We didn’t have too many chances offensively, but the one we did get, Darshan took very clinically, allowing us to organize defensively and just focus on not conceding. It was also great to get a big Conference win over a rival after drawing with them in the reverse fixture. We wanted to end the week on a good note and keep our hand firmly on second place going into the penultimate week of matches, so the win meant a lot for standings as well.”
That is where the boys’ JV soccer team season ends. They finished with a record of 10-4-3.
