Rangers football team dominates Silver Valley, 42-14

By Parker Costin, Correspondent

The Santa Rosa Academy Rangers soundly put away the Silver Valley Trojans on Friday night, 42-14. The Rangers were successful throughout the game. Whether it was on offense or defense, they simply couldn’t be stopped.

The Rangers started the game off on a high note when, on the first play of the game, defensive end Donavan Watson forced a fumble and recovered. That set up the Rangers on the opposition’s 19 -yard line. This resulted in a one-play scoring drive for the Rangers when running back Ian Taylor took it to the house for a 19-yard rushing touchdown.

The Rangers mostly focused on running the ball. They only had 7 passing attempts, but those added up to 2 passing touchdowns and 77 passing yards. The lead rusher on the night was quarterback Jacob Goode. He had 19 rushes for 118 yards and 2 touchdowns. The leading receiver on the night was Christopher Ramirez, who had 2 receptions for 54 yards and a touchdown.

Ramirez, who has had huge standout games for the past few weeks, had some words to describe his approach as of late.

“I’ve just been trying to beat the defenders,” he said. “Once I’m able to get past them, I can pretty much do what I want. That has been the main key to my success so far. Hopefully, I’m able to keep up this play and just be able to help my team win.”

The defense was a huge complement to the Rangers’ offensive play. Tthey were able to stop the Trojans in the end zone multiple times. One of the main stops in the game came at the end of the first quarter, when middle linebacker Travis Maisenbacher jumped the snap on the 3-yard line and came up with the stop on fourth down to stop the Trojans and take away all the momentum they had.

The defensive player of the night for the Rangers was outside linebacker Ezekiel Thralls. He finished with 7 tackles, 1 tackle for loss, and an interception. Thralls’ interception came in the third quarter, when he ran for 37 yards before finally being stopped. That led to the Rangers scoring a touchdown with Goode running it in for a 6-yard rushing touchdown.

Head coach Perry Jones had high praise for Thralls’ game.

“He looked great out there tonight,” the coach said. “He was able to stop all the opportunities that were presented to them tonight and he definitely showed that there’s a reason why he’s out there on that field.”

The Rangers improved their record to 7-1 on the season and look to continue their winning streak next Saturday when they go on the road to Claremont and visit Webb High School, which is 4-2 on the year.