The Rangers recovered a fumble at the 50-yard line with 36 seconds left in the game and threw four Hail-Mary passes – all of which resulted in incompletions – turned the ball over on downs, and left the opponent with 9 seconds to take victory formation. These final plays of  the game left the FHC football faithful with deja vu, as the Rangers lost by one for the second week in a row, this time to Grandville 37-36.

“I’m very proud of these guys,” Head coach Tim Rogers said. “My heart breaks for them right now because they deserve better but it’s a life lesson for them and hopefully we benefit from it in the next six games of the year.”

Also for the second week in a row, FHC scored a touchdown on the opening kickoff, this week the 92-yard run came from junior Jackson Clay.

“That touchdown was insane, I’m so thankful for my guys up front they did a heck of a job [blocking] and that momentum brought us back after a tough loss last week,” said Jackson, who had a big night on both sides of the ball.

Grandville then scored on their opening play and didn’t slow down, as they went on to put up 30 unanswered points in the first half. Senior quarterback Luke Majick found senior Tate Hallock in the endzone just before half time to put the score at 30-14. This dynamic duo played extremely well last night, as Luke threw for 195 yards and 3 touchdowns, and Tate had 77 receiving yards as well as leading the team in tackles on defense with 7.

The third quarter was scoreless for both teams, and in the fourth quarter the Ranger offense turned it on to score 16 unanswered points. Luke found junior Hayden Sarjeant in the back of the endzone, then dove over the goal line to complete the two-point conversion. This cut Grandville’s lead to 30-22 with ten minutes left in the game.

Senior Cam Deines then ran into the endzone for 5 of his 40 total rushing yards, and Luke found Jackson in the endzone on the following two-point conversion. This knotted things up at 30 with four minutes left.

With just under two minutes left in the game, Luke put up a 30-yard pass for junior Jimmy Schollar, who came down with a spectacular catch in the endzone to put the score at 37-36. The Rangers decided to go for the two-point conversion, but the runner was tackled inches short of the goal line.

“It was a big play I honestly didn’t know the ball was coming to me. Luke just trusted me and put up a great ball, so I had a good chance to go up and get it,” Jimmy said. “It was just a great feeling because it put us back in the game.”

The Bulldogs stuck with their running game in order to run out the clock, but the Ranger defense forced a fumble to give the offense another shot. FHC couldn’t connect and fell once again by one point.

The Ranger defense stepped up big time in the second half, with all 11 guys doing their part. In the first two quarters, FHC had a very hard time stopping the Bulldogs’ Wing-T offense but in the second half kept Grandville on their heels and nearly scoreless. Seniors Chris Sobieck, Jay Shields, Cam Deines, Justin Hoving, and Kyle Wojczynski and juniors Bryce Kerr and Brandon Weiskopf were especially impressive and highly praised by the coaching staff.

“Everyone of them played their butts off today and gave me everything they had,” Rogers said. “Collectively it was a great effort.”

Another heartbreaking loss puts the Rangers at 1-2 after the conclusion of their non-conference schedule for the season. The next six games will be against OK White teams and nothing but a perfect record will allow FHC to take the Conference Championship for the third year in a row. Next week, the Rangers will host Forest Hills Northern for a much-anticipated rivalry game. A very talented Northern team will be yet another challenge for FHC, especially after back-to-back heartbreaking losses.

“We’re going to work on finishing football games,” said Rogers about his approach for next week’s game. “We have to tie together the loose ends and do the little things. [Northern] is going to come in here working their tails off and give us their best shot.”