Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

Doing their best to forget about the lopsided season-opening loss to Cretin-Derham Hall, the Forest Lake football team traveled to Bloomington on Friday, Sept. 7 to face a vastly improved Kennedy squad that finished 3-7 in 2006.

The non-conference game couldn’t have started any better for the Rangers, as their option running attack plowed down the field and scored on a Mike Schultz 4-yard touchdown run to take an early 6-0 lead.

Now that’s more like it.

As long as the offense didn’t have too many fumbles, and the defense could shut down the Eagles’ passing game, then Forest Lake would be headed toward a 1-1 record and ready to face the remainder of what is exclusively now a Suburban East Conference schedule.

Then again, Kennedy could use the help of eight Ranger turnovers and compile 266 yards through the air to win easily, 42-13.

“Their offense was pretty good, but we put ourselves in bad situations all night,” Forest Lake head coach Matt Cleary shared.

A large portion of the Eagles’ offense was produced by quarterback Evan Aber and his favorite wide receiver, Hakeem Bourne-McFarlane, who has committed to play football at North Dakota State next fall.

Bourne-McFarlane may not be as highly regarded as Michael Floyd of Cretin, but he’s not far behind. Two weeks ago, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune created a high school Dream Team, and the two wideouts were Floyd and Bourne-McFarlane.

The 6’1” receiver got Kennedy on the board with a 15-yard touchdown reception to tie the score at 6-6. Aber and Bourne-McFarlane would connect again later in the first quarter to make it 21-6.

Forest Lake was on its way to a superb 419 yards on the ground, but the fumble-itis caused problems as the 21-6 score would hold into the second half.

If it wasn’t Bourne-McFarlane scoring for the Eagles, then it was Jeff Mills or Mike Houts taking advantage of the limited pass rush, as all three players would collect two touchdowns a piece.

“It was a very disappointing game to be a part of. Defensively, we need some guys to step up and start playing much better,” Cleary said.

Rangers’ fullback Caleb Corrow ended the scoring with a 14-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.

“Offensively, we are ahead of where we were last year, except for the turnovers, which might be the most important aspect of football,” Cleary said. “Any time you rush for over 400 yards, you should win. Penalties and turnovers equals losing. We need to fix those two things in order to get some wins.”

Despite the two defeats to begin the season, the Rangers have the third-best offense in the SEC, and the second-best ground game, “but you wouldn’t know it by the scores or our attitudes” Cleary said.

Forest Lake now looks to turn it around this Friday when they travel to an 0-2 Hastings team that was drubbed 55-0 by Cretin-Derham Hall last week.

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