The Rangers were able to make quick work of this one as they mercied Ottawa Hills at the half. With an array of goals to start the game, they were able to gain an early lead and it never narrowed.

Senior Katie Clay was able to rack up four goals, while junior Madison Donley added three. The Rangers also got good minutes from their bench as they subbed in often and never let the Bengals get comfortable.

Halfway through the first half, the Rangers held a commanding 13-0 lead. After taking a large lead, they started to work on things that they will need to get better at during the duration of the season. Katie was a key all game and knows that these types of games are more important than they seem.

“We worked on when and where to slot our outside forwards through and how much speed to put on the ball so that it’s not too fast for the goalie to come out and get or not too slow for the defenders to pick off,” Katie said. “We also worked on moving the ball out wide so our outside midfielders can dribble the ball down to the end line to cross in.

“Another thing was once we hit 15 goals we could only score on headers,” she said. “It helped our outsides because they had to lift the ball perfectly.”

Junior Kaitlin Weaver also knows the importance of getting better in a game like that.

“We focused on trying to work on our ball transitioning in the upper half of the field,” Kaitlin said. “We tried to take advantage of the opportunity to work on finishing as well.”

Head coach Jeremy Stacy looked at this game as a chance to improve on one or two specific things, which the Rangers were able to do.

“We tried working on getting it to the end line and setting up our runs,” Stacy said. “Getting in the right position to score was something we also worked on.”

Kaitlin agreed with Katie that crossing and finishing were two things that were main focuses in this game.

“We worked on scoring on only one touch,” Kaitlin said. “Crossing balls in the air and from the corner away from the goalie were also things we tried to improve upon.”

Although the Rangers rank at the top of the state, Katie believes they still have room for improvement if they want to keep winning.

“We can’t afford to have almost chances,” Katie said. “We need to know what balls to play at the right time and right speed. We can’t let other teams frustrate us since the team we play are the underdogs.”

Kaitlin also knows that there are areas of improvement, and they both have similar ideas of what the team needs to get better at and what they have been working on.

“We need to get better with our balls coming from the corner of the end zone,” Kaitlin said. “We need to be able to drop them back instead of straight to the goalie.”

Katie wants to end her Ranger soccer career with a championship and has high hopes for the remainder of the season.

“The big goal overall is to win a state championship,” Katie said. “To get there we will work hard every practice and game to get better, while still making sure we have fun with it.”