Thursday night had one of the most exciting soccer games of the season so far. This game was between conference rivals FHC and FHN. Coming into the game Northern sat at a perfect 11-0, while FHC was 8-3-1. The Rangers were unable to capitalize, even behind a strong night from their offense. Northern was able to find ways to score at critical moments while the Rangers were struggling to play at Northern’s packed stadium. Both halfs consisted of back and forth fast break play.

Early in the first half, the Huskies maintained most of the possession getting several looks on goal. Senior goalie Jared Ireland was able to track down and smother their shots. With about 34 minutes left in the first half the Huskies were able to play the ball nicely off of a cross, and were able to squeak a header past and give Northern the 1-0 lead. A couple minutes later FHC had an opportunity to even it up at one a piece, but both Ian Abel’s and Eric Conerty’s shots were stopped. Eric was able to make up for his previous shot with 17 minutes left in the first half, when he was left alone on an island and was able to bury his shot into the top right corner. The score was knotted up at one heading into halftime.

The second half started slow, until about 17 minutes left in the game when Senior Joe Batdorf got ahold of a header and knocked it into the goal. What seemed like a perfect night for the rangers came to an end, when the Huskies were able to find a garbage time goal to tie it up at two with four minutes left.

Senior MJ Francisco gave his thoughts on last night’s game.

“It was a big let down that we could not go on, now we need Northern to lose now to have a shot at a conference title,” MJ said. “As a team we just need to capitalize on our opportunities and play consistent for the full 80 minutes. I feel as if we outplayed them tonight and knowing that makes us feel good as a team since Northern is ranked number 1 in the state. Tonight just showed that if we can fix a few things that we can compete with anyone in the state.”

Senior Luke Peterson who does a good job of coming in and changing up the pace of the game. He gave his insight about last nights game.

“I think we played really well as a team,” Luke said. “Northern got lucky on a few chances and we slipped up at the end, but mistakes happen and we’re looking forward to districts and to hopefully make a deep run come playoff time.”

Next game for FHC is Saturday against Portage Northern, look for the Rangers to come out ready to play.