“It’s definitely a huge win,” sophomore Jonah Spates said. “I think that it’s a big stepping stone for us to build on, and it’s just the beginning of what’s going to be a great season.”

Jonah and fellow sophomore Peyton Bush provided a big chunk of the offensive workload on the day with 11 points each. The most notable offensive spark came from sophomore Jeremy James, who led the team in points with 14 and helped pull away from the Chargers in the second half.

“That loss [to Eastern] really bothered us,” Jeremy said. “We wanted to practice hard, come back hard, and we played hard from the get go, so it was just a great team win.”

On the defensive side of the ball, Peyton hustled and immediately shut down some of Covenant’s leading scorers. He was a huge reason why the Chargers could only score 18 points in the first half. Another player that really stepped up defensively was sophomore Dallas Hopson, helping FHC get more offensive possessions. Interim head coach Kyle Carhart was most impressed with the team’s energy on defense.

“[We told the guys to] deny the wings, play hard, and communicate, and I think today we did a great job of all three of those,” Carhart said.

The second half was an offensive show for FHC, as they doubled their score plus some, while only allowing 15 points in the process. The half started off with a quick layup by Jeremy and a pull-up jump shot from Jonah off of a steal that forced the Chargers to call a timeout and change their gameplan.

Sophomore Chris Battiste was huge rebounding the ball, along with facilitating and providing additional scoring to finish with a great all-around game. A big stretch of three pointers in the final moments of the third quarter would be the end of Covenant’s momentum.

In the fourth quarter, the depth of the Rangers showed out. Standout sophomores in that quarter such as Isaac Ghareeb, Cam David, and Maguire Mahacek all did their share to outscore the Chargers 13-6 in the final quarter and ultimately give the Rangers the 66-33 win.

This win puts the Rangers at 2-2 and gives them an opportunity to win another championship at the Cornerstone Holiday Tournament. To win this championship game, they will need to come out with the same intensity on both the offensive and defensive ends. The hot shooting will also need to continue, as the team is getting to the point in the season where they will play some very talented offensive teams.

“I think we can improve in some execution areas on offense,” Carhart said. “Some of the stuff we don’t have in yet, but we can certainly screen and get into our stuff a little bit better.”