Rangers ‘scrape, claw, fight’ through season

After a lopsided toss to Timber Lake last week, the Hill City Rangers put together one of their better offensive performances of the season, keeping within one score and pushing to the whistle in last Friday’s 29-21 loss to Lemmon-McIntosh on the road.

“Lemmon is a lot better team than I think a lot of people give them credit for,” said head coach Brett Eckert. “They’re 2-3 and their losses are all against good teams.”

“We came out, we got some plays, made some mental mistakes defensively, which gave them some scores that we should never have given up,” said Eckert.

The Rangers were down by 15 with eight minutes left and were able to “march the ball down the field and score,” according to Eckert.

The Rangers’ defense stopped the ball and forced the Cowboys to punt with two minutes left in the game. With a Ranger possession and around 66 yards to go, the offense went to work.

“We ended up having one play left at about the 25-yard line and no timeouts to call and draw something up,” said Eckert. “So, we just took a shot.”

The Rangers fell short, giving Lemmon its second win of the season.

“It was a pretty exciting game,” said Eckert. “We had to scrape, we had to claw, we had to fight.”

“I think we’re moving in a good direction,” he added.

The Rangers had a balanced offense, with quarterback Colt Eckert completing 19 of 27 passes for 225 yards and a touchdown. His primary targets were Breylon Rahn and Brodi Moriarty. Rahn caught seven passes for 93 yards while Moriarty caught the same, adding 65 yards. Mason Buehler added a 27-yard reception while Alan Harvey added two catches for 35 yards and Colin Jobgen added five yards in two catches.

On the ground, Buehler led the Rangers with 77 yards on 13 carries and a touchdown. Eckert added 27 rushing yards and a touchdown on 11 carries, while Harvey had two carries for two yards.

Kicker Logan Street had a perfect game in extra points, going three for three.

“I think we’re moving in a good direction,” said Eckert.

While Hill City has struggled on the road, they look to build on last week’s offensive momentum and rebound to improve their record.

The Rangers will have the home field advantage going head-to-head against Bennett County under the lights at Ranger field Friday to round out homecoming week.

“It’s kind of a balancing act of making sure the kids stay locked in but still being able to enjoy the festivities and everything,” Eckert said.

The Rangers will enter the matchup 1-4 while Bennett County is coming off a three-game winning streak. The Warriors’ momentum has been built on some impressive performances on both sides of the ball, with their defense holding their opponents to a combined 26 points in those matchups.

“They’re incredibly athletic. They’ve got a quarterback who’s a gunslinger,” said Eckert of the Warriors’ Maddox Risse. “He just makes plays. He’s an athlete.”

“We’ve got to stop the explosive plays with Bennett County, because if you let them get rolling, they will have a heyday offensively,” said Eckert.