Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

Just as the boys soccer team appears to be making improvement with a good looking win, they stumble in their next game, which takes them back to square one.

On Saturday, Sept. 2, the boys came back from a 4-0 loss to Mounds View and beat Irondale, 3-1.

However, the steady effort that was displayed by the offense and the defense against Irondale, didnít travel to St. Paul when the Rangers met Cretin-Derham Hall the following Tuesday.

At the start of the game it was obvious the Raiders had size, but Forest Lake matched up well with its speed and quickness. One area where Cretin had the advantage, however, was how quickly they could score.

Soon after both teams made a rush on the respective offensive ends, Cretinís Max Behrenbrinker scored on a goal that seemed to come out of nowhere. What seemed like an interesting contest of contrasting strengths quickly turned into a rout.

Forest Lake would control the ball as well as the tempo, but would never really threaten to score. And then, just like that, Cretin would storm down the field and get another one past junior goalie Chris Pignato.

Whereas the Rangers couldnít manage to get off a shot, the Raiders would wait patiently and strike.

Boom, boom, boom, Cretin-Derham gets three more goals following the same blueprint, and Forest Lake is down 4-0 at the end of the first half.

Head coach Shaun Conley said the team is still young, inexperienced and trying to learn a new defensive system, but he sees progress.

The Rangers were able to slow down the scoring in the second half as Cretin could only muster one more goal.

ROSEVILLE LOSS

With a 5-0 defeat weighing on their minds, Forest Lake would come back to host Roseville on Thursday.

Even though the offense was able to get one goal on a brilliant header by Pat Stiner off of a corner kick from Bryce Bengston, it wasnít enough as the Rangers lost 3-1.

Conley admitted that by trying to push up and draw Roseville offsides it led to a few mistakes which affected the final outcome.

Throughout the game, though, Forest Lake controlled the ball, and really looked like the better team, but it didnít show on the scoreboard.

According to Conley, even the Roseville coach said the Rangers outplayed and ìout-possessedî his team.

DEJA VU

On Monday night, Hastings came to town, and almost inexplicably, picked up a 1-0 win. Their first win of the season.

In a similar story line, Forest Lake pushed their back line way up in hopes of getting an offsides call on the Raiders, but with less than five minutes gone in the first half, Hastings broke free and scored the only goal of the game.

Besides that gaffe, the Rangers, once again, looked to be the more skilled team. As Bengston pointed out, Forest Lake basically played the entire second half on Hastingsí side of the field.

Or as Conley said, ìWe dominated the second half, we dominated most of the first half. We really had all sorts of stuff going on.î

While addressing his team after the game, Conley shared a telling statistic: Forest Lake outshot Hastings 15-2 in the second half.

ìThatís the way you got to play,î he said. ìYou got to play with THAT intensity all the time.î

The Rangers will try to take the next step, where they convert on their ability to control the ball and turn that into actual goals, when they play Stillwater ó ranked No. 5 in the metro ó on Thursday, Sept. 14.

ìTheyíre coming around so fast,î Conley said of his team. ìWeíre so close.î

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