Senior Tate Hallock’s 3-touchdown night led the varsity football team to a big 49-21 win over rival Forest Hills Northern last night at home.

“I’m pleased with the whole team really,” said Tate, who had 4 catches for 173 yards. “We came into practice this week and stepped it up, so I’m not pleased with myself I’m pleased with the whole team.”

The Rangers got the scoring started on the defensive end when senior Cam Deines had a 35-yard pick-six two minutes into the game and allowed FHC to take an early 7-0 lead.

“That was a big momentum boost and allowed us to start the first half strong,” Cam said.

On the following drive, senior quarterback Luke Majick ran 5 yards into the end zone after marching his team 65 yards down the field. FHC showed its dominance early and was up two scores against an already struggling FHN offense.

While Luke first got things going with his feet, his arm was hot last night as he was 7 for 13 with 241 passing yards in the game. Before the end of the first quarter, the senior quarterback would find his go-to target Tate twice in the endzone to put the Rangers up 28-0 after 12 minutes of play.

Cam scored once more early in the second quarter before the Huskies could respond. After struggling for most of the half, the FHN quarterback put up a 50-50 ball in the endzone, on which players from both teams came down with possession. A tie goes to the receiver, and Northern was able to put 7 points on the board to go into the half trailing 35-7.

FHN showed some life early in the second half and was able to score on the opening drive. The Huskies then scored only once more in the final minute of the game, but by that point Luke had found Tate and junior Jackson Clay in the endzone for 2 more touchdowns and the Huskies couldn’t catch up. On the final Ranger possession, backup quarterback junior Jimmy Scholler was able to take victory formation and seal the 49-21 FHC victory.

“Not only do you want your starters to finish a game, but there was a lot of guys you don’t normally see who went in there and were able to still run the ball and still play good defense,” said Head coach Tim Rogers about the guys off the bench who played most of the fourth quarter. “We didn’t skip a beat when our subs came in, which I was most proud of.”

The solid Ranger defense was led by Cam who had 7 tackles on the night, but all the players were key to this impressive effort.

“We don’t win with one guy, we win with eleven,” said Cam about his team’s performance on the defensive side of the ball.

Following two heartbreaking losses early in the season, this blowout rivalry win could be the spark the Rangers needed to make a run in the OK White. With last night’s game, the Rangers sit at 2-2 (1-0) on the season and will battle Northview next week on the road. With a talented and potent offense, the Wildcats could be one of the tougher teams in the conference for the Rangers to beat.

“[This win] is very gratifying and I’m just proud of us,” Rogers said. “After two disheartening losses, you sometimes wonder if the kids are going to be able to bounce back, but obviously they did that tonight. I think the morale has shifted to a very positive end after a game like this.”