A late surge from sophomore goalie Mason Leffew preserved the JV Rangers one goal lead against the Lowell Red Arrows 1-0. It came down to the final seconds, but the Rangers held strong.

As the energy seemed to wither at the end of a hard fought match, the Red Arrows found a second wind delivering five shots on goal in the final ten minutes of the game. After a couple big saves from the second half keeper, Mason, the Red Arrows had one final chance to put one in the net.

With 14.3 seconds to play in the game, a goal kick from the Red Arrow goalie opened up a lane for the attack. Off the bounce, a hard shot into the ground was quickly deflected by Mason. The ball shot up in the air and over the goal to ensure a Ranger victory.

A strong second half performance from Mason, who did not start the game, proved to be what the Rangers needed.

“I’m really proud of our defense.  I think they played pretty strong,” Mason said. “When you just score a goal, and you’re up 1-0, it can be intimidating to hold that lead against a good team. It was really close, coming down to the last couple seconds. I ran out and tried to get the ball out and just make sure they never had a chance for a shot on goal.”

The Rangers one goal of the night came off of a shot by sophomore Stephen McLenithan.

“I loved scoring tonight,” said Stephen who scored off a ricochet early in the second half. “It felt great to score the winning goal. We had to go for each ball as hard as we could. Coach delivered a great halftime speech to keep us pumped up for the second half.”

The Rangers move on to face another conference opponent, the Greenville Yellow Jackets, on Thursday at home.

First year head coach Jonah Stacy was proud of the fight his team put up tonight.

“I thought it was a well fought game,” Stacy said. “Two really good teams that wanted to play. In the end it came down to who wanted to finish. I gave our guys a pep talk of how we were going to win it. We knew it would come down to our attacking third, and that’s exactly what happened.”

The Rangers sit as the top team in the conference with a record of 7-2-1 this far.

“All I know is that we’ve lost one game to Northern, and they happen to be in our conference,” Stacy said. “I have no doubts that we’ll be right up at the top if we keep playing the way we’re playing. We’re a good team, we’re a solid team, and we’re here to win. After tonight especially, now we know we can win.”