Senior Kai Hagerdon gave the boys varsity soccer team the offensive boost they needed with just under 15 minutes to go in the first half. His phenomenal goal was the only one scored on the night, as FHC prevailed over the Lowell Red Arrows 1-0 in a tightly contested game.

“I just wanted to make sure I got my touches in and attacked the defense,” Kai said. “I knew with my teammates that we could pull this one off and we did.”

The Ranger offense got off to a hot start from the get-go. Junior Sammy Postlewait and senior Reese Walli got to the goal with ease and wore down the Red Arrows’ goalie as the game progressed.

After Kai’s goal with 14:44 remaining in the half, the Rangers had much more confidence on offense and got even more shots on goal. Despite only being 1-0, this was an offensive performance that looked better than many other games.

As well as the offense played in the first half, the defense was even better in the second half. Junior goalie Kyler Williams played a phenomenal game, coming up with huge saves and stopping a big push made by Lowell in the remaining minutes of the game.

“We’ve been working on possessing the ball as much as possible in order to control the game,” Kyler said. “I really think that helped out today in a big win.”

Lowell’s big push in the final three minutes made things a little interesting, as the Red Arrows seemed to have saved all of their energy for this final push. The FHC defense fought back and held Lowell to a shutout win, only the third of the year.

Head coach Caleb Postlewait was impressed with the team’s overall performance, both offensively and defensively.

“I challenged the boys at the beginning to not have a slow five to ten minutes,” Postlewait said. “We really created some opportunities in the first half. At the end of the day, you walk away with a 1-0 win and you have to salute the defense for putting in a good effort, and the offense for putting one away.”

This win puts the Rangers now at 5-5-1, and 4-1-1 in OK White Conference play. FHC now shifts their attention to another conference opponent in the Northview Wildcats. Last time these two teams met, the game ended in a tie on the Ranger’s home turf. Now that this will be a road game for FHC and there has been a noticeable improvement, this will be a different ball game than it was at the beginning of the season.

“We’re a program and a team that takes one game at a time,” Postlewait said. “Against Northview, I would like to see the boys keep the ball a bit more and retain a bit more possession. We continue making improvements for the team, and it’s great to see as a coach, but there’s still a lot to go to reach where we want to be.”