Coming off a string of blowout wins over local opponents after the loss to Brother Rice, the boys varsity lacrosse team took on two teams from the east side of the state this weekend. Their two opponents were Detroit Country Day and Cranbrook Kingswood, who are both historically strong and talented teams.

On Friday, the Rangers took on the Detroit Country Day Yellowjackets, who field a very young team and are a rising team in the rankings towards the end of the season. After a close loss against a good University of Detroit Jesuit team two days before, the Yellowjackets were looking to quickly halt any chance of a losing streak against the Rangers.

With the boys often starting slow offensively as of late, this was not the case against DCD. With a young offense up front for the Yellowjackets, the FHC defense played more aggressive than usual. The boys were stepping up early, intercepting passes, and stopping the DCD attackmen before they got in a threatening position.

The fluidity of the Ranger offense from previous games continued against Country Day. Leading the charge offensively were senior Tate Hallock, senior Luke Majick, and sophomore Carson Deines. Tate had one of his best games scoring-wise as he went on to score 6 goals on the day. Luke and Carson also helped add to the wide score margin, with Luke scoring five times and Carson scoring twice.

Not only did these three score at will, but they also dished the ball out to their teammates efficiently. Tate also led the team in assists, recording 4. Carson and Luke closely followed with 3 and 2, respectively. Another major help on the offense was senior Logan Wedder. As a FOGO, Logan’s main job is to win faceoffs, but he did more than that on Friday. While he did dominate the faceoffs and create extra possessions, Logan even scored 2 goals off of chances he created.

The Yellowjackets got some chances from the FHC defense losing focus with its aggressive play, but the 20-8 score shows there was no real threat towards the end. With the 20-8 win, the Rangers once again displayed how well they can move the ball and score.

After Friday, the boys shifted their attention to a matchup against Cranbrook. With one of the oldest lacrosse programs in the Midwest, Cranbrook has historically been very good and always present a threat.

Coming from two hours away and watching the JV game beforehand, the Rangers had been sitting around quite a while before the game started.

“Before the game, we talked about not wanting to come out flat and slow, and that’s exactly what we did,” head coach Andy Shira said. “We can always control our energy [so there are no excuses].”

Unfortunately for the Rangers, they did come out slow. After the first quarter, the boys only led by 3 goals, with the score being 5-2 at the end of the first quarter. However, in the second quarter, they picked up the pace. After going on a 10-1 in the second quarter, the Rangers returned to the locker room with a 15-3 lead.

The second half was a much slower game than the first half had been. With a final score of 18-4 in favor of the Rangers, the boys only scored 4 goals between the two teams in the second half. Luke Majick sat atop the box score with 5 goals in the game, as well as 2 assists. Junior Jackson Clay, however, led the team in assists with 5.

Senior Will Cammell was a force to be reckoned with in the middle, causing 2 key turnovers and even scoring a goal at a crucial time with the Rangers being a man down. Logan was absolutely dominant in faceoffs again, winning 22 out of 24 faceoffs. With so many extra possessions being created, it was near impossible for Cranbrook to make a comeback.

With these two wins, the Rangers advance to 9-1 on the season. The next game for the boys is another local matchup, this time against Caledonia. With the Caledonia game being the sole game of the week for the boys until the weekend, they will look to capitalize on the opportunity to improve ahead of a matchup with Northville.