Freshman Miles Duiven led the Rangers to a 15-8 win against the Caledonia Fighting Scots with 6 goals and an assist.

“We had about a week of practice in between games, so we just went out and did what we had to do on the field and got the win,” said head coach Vance Shepherd shortly after the game. “It was overall a good win, but there are definitely a few key things we need to improve on looking forward.”

Right off the bat, sophomore Reid Davison won the faceoff, giving the Rangers an easy first advantage. He passed it back to set up the offense, and FHC was on its way. An easy pass up to Miles followed, who ripped it in the back of the net to give the Rangers a quick 1-0 lead. Shortly afterward, freshman John Tomsheck scored 1 of his 4 goals, boosting the lead to a 2-point advantage. This was the tempo throughout the rest of the first quarter, as the Rangers would go on to score 5 more and give themselves a distinct 7-point advantage.

“It was a good start to the game; better than we could’ve hoped for,” said sophomore Collin Ward, who had 3 goals and 2 assists on the night. “We knew we had to keep our offensive pressure up all game, and we did that. Unfortunately, Caledonia scored some late goals making it a closer game than expected.”

As the second quarter came, the Scots knew they had to switch something up in order to stay with their opponents. The Rangers tried their best to make sure that wouldn’t happen, but Caledonia did just as they planned to rip a shot past freshman goalie Charley Mehney to put the Fighting Scots on the board. Unfortunately for them, Miles had a plan of his own, as he scored 2 back-to-back goals—one of them being a 12-yard goal after being shoved in the back. Following that, both teams each scored a goal to make the score at the half 10-2.

“I thought our offensive pressure was phenomenal all game, and the Caledonia defense didn’t know what to do with our intensity, which was one of the key factors in this game,” sophomore defender Sawyer Bosch said. “As for our defense, we just need to have a few guys step up and play more consistent throughout the whole entire game.”

The second half was just as eventful; however, this time it started out with a Caledonia goal on freshman goalie Mac Boike. Shortly following, John juked a defender and ripped a shot right below the goalie with 6:10 left in the third quarter. After a few more Ranger goals, the horn blew, sounding the end of the third quarter.

The fourth quarter started out just like every other quarter but ended in a fashion that was not so similar. The Rangers had the advantage 13-3, but the Scots quickly struck, making the score 13-4. With four minutes left in the game, Caledonia sprung to action against a lackadaisical Ranger defense, scoring an easy 4 goals in a four-minute period. At this point, the Rangers had a big lead, but Reid won the face-off and sprinted up the field to close off the game 15-8.

“Looking at the rest of the season, we need to play every game as a full game,” Vance said. “We’ve had some tough competition, and we have some even more difficult games coming up; we just need to take them one at a time. Instead of playing well only parts of the game, we need to stay consistent throughout.”

This win brings the Rangers to 9-1 and 3-0 in the conference. Their next game is against Northville at home on Saturday, May 4.