Despite junior Jackson Clay’s efforts on the offensive end, the boys varsity lacrosse team fell short against the top-ranked in the state Brother Rice Warriors on Tuesday by a score of 16-10. Coming into the game, this matchup was viewed as one of the best games in the entire state all year and the biggest home game for FHC in a long time. Unfortunately for the Rangers, the Warriors and their high-powered offense were too much for the defense, scoring goal-after-goal to stop some of the FHC runs.

In the first quarter, the game stayed relatively even, although Brother Rice had the majority of possession. The Warriors quickly took the lead only two minutes into the game, and the Rangers couldn’t respond for five minutes. Attack after attack, the star-studded Brother Rice defense—filled with commits to Georgetown and Rutgers—forced turnovers and bad shots from the Rangers; that was until senior Tate Hallock tied things up at one from a beautiful assist via Jackson Clay.

Brother Rice quickly retook the lead from a Justin Glod goal—a Harvard commit—who continuously threatened the Ranger defense throughout the game. While the score did remain 1-1 for a while, Brother Rice did hold a majority of the possession and was destined for a run of goals at some point. That run came late in the first, as Brother Rice quickly followed up Glod’s goal with another one thirty seconds later, and scored with eleven seconds left in the quarter to make it 4-1. Even though the Rangers were down three, a position they hadn’t been in before, it was still early in the game and chances were starting to improve.

Coming out of the gate in the second quarter, the Rangers showed serious signs of life. Junior Hayden Sarjeant scored a beautiful backhanded shot from a Jackson assist, and the Rangers were all of the sudden back in it. Jackson then scored a wrap-around goal, sitting behind the net until the Warrior defenders stepped up and then wrapping around the net and shooting it in the top right corner.

Brother Rice scored two goals throughout the next three minutes, and the Rangers were suddenly back where they started. To end the half, Tate and senior Luke Majick scored a goal apiece, but Brother Rice scored two to cancel them out and end the half with an 8-5 lead.

In the third quarter, things looked good for the Rangers once again. Luke scored his second goal of the day five minutes into the second half. The goal scoring slowed down throughout the quarter, as there were only two goals between the two teams within the first ten minutes of the quarter. In the last minute and a half, the Warriors scored three unanswered goals, ending the third quarter with a 12-6 lead.

The fourth quarter consisted of back-and-forth runs from both teams, as Brother Rice started off the scoring, but they were quickly answered by 2 goals from Jackson Clay. Unfortunately for the Rangers, it was too little, too late as the boys were still trailing by 5 goals with little time to go.

This loss brings the Rangers to 5-1 on the season. Their next game will be another rivalry matchup, this time against third-ranked in Division 2 Forest Hills Eastern Hawks.