FHC faced fourth and 23 with 24 seconds remaining on the clock and the season on the line. A hail mary pass came down in a Mona Shores defender’s hands, and the Sailors walked away with a 34-28 victory in a nailbiter to end the Rangers’ season in the opening round of playoffs.

“I’m proud of our kids, I love the effort,” Head coach Tim Rogers said. “We continue to fight to the very end no matter what happens.”

The Sailors started hot from the very start, as they returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown and scored from 5 yards out on the next possession. Down 14-0 late in the first quarter, senior quarterback Luke Majick found fellow senior Tate Hallock for a 52-yard gain as the first 12 minutes of play ended. This momentum carried into the second quarter, and Luke quickly found senior Cam Deines for a 17-yard touchdown.

In his first game back from a shoulder injury, Luke was able to pick up right where he left off. He ran for 2 touchdowns in addition to some key first downs late in the game, as well as throwing for 1 touchdown and finding a couple open targets down the field for big gains.

“[Luke] didn’t even look rusty, it’s like he never skipped a beat,” Rogers said. “He’s tenacious, he’s a warrior, and he gave us everything he could today.”

Mona Shores quickly responded to extend the lead to 21-7, but junior Jackson Clay returned the ensuing kickoff all the way to the house to close the gap to one score. The Sailors would run it into the endzone on the next possession to lead 28-14 at the break.

FHC came out of the locker room with higher energy and had a successful opening drive. Back-to-back 25-yard runs from Cam was capped off by a 9-yard touchdown run from Luke. The Sailors responded with their own touchdown once again, but senior Kyle Collar blocked the point after attempt. This brought Mona Shores to a 34-21 lead midway through the third. A 5-yard touchdown run from Luke late in the third locked the score at 34-28.

After a quality third quarter on both ends of the ball, FHC had some extremely costly mistakes in the final quarter of play. The Ranger defense came up big to get the ball back twice, one came on a fumble recovery at the 2 yard line with the Sailors knocking on the door, and the other on an interception from senior Evan Metaj. The offense, however, couldn’t find a way to move the chains and turned the ball over three times on fourth-down mistakes.

“We made some mistakes when we couldn’t and those mistakes cost us the game,” Rogers said.

After Evan’s interception with three minutes left in the game, the Rangers were able to drive to the Sailors’ 40 yard line. With three unsuccessful downs, FHC faced the do-or-die situation and couldn’t pull out the win.

This loss knocks the Rangers out of the playoffs and solidifies their record at 5-5 overall. For the seniors on this team, this marks their last high school football game. The starting roster was extremely senior-heavy this season, and they led the team by showing an extreme amount of heart and grit each game.  

“I love the seniors and I’m very proud of them, they did a great job of showing what it takes to be a Ranger football player,” Rogers said. “Hopefully what comes of this loss tonight is our younger guys got a chance to see how to do things right. We’re going to lose a great senior class, but if we learn and benefit from their leadership, it won’t be a total loss.”