Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

The way the Forest Lake boys soccer team looked during its 3-1 season-opening loss to a highly regarded Mounds View squad, it didn’t appear the Rangers would need too many games to secure their first win.

That victory would come on the road against St. Francis on Tuesday, Aug. 28, where Forest Lake would head home with a not-so-beautiful 2-1 decision.

“(The) St. Francis game was ugly,” head coach Aaron Tilsen admitted, “but we found a way to win.

The Fighting Saints utilized a free kick to take the lead in the first half, but after that, the Rangers dominated and eventually tied the contest with approximately eight minutes remaining before the break.

That’s when senior Tue Xiong made a fabulous cross to junior Jeremy Stiner who knocked it in for the goal.

The second half was all Forest Lake as the team pounded the net, but couldn’t get one to go in, until Stiner picked up his second goal of the day on a penalty kick.

“Good to get a win and score goals again” Tilsen added. “Five goals in three games.”

If starting the season against No. 8 ranked Mounds View wasn’t hard enough, then the degree of difficulty was raised on Aug. 30 when the boys had to play at No. 4-ranked Stillwater.

Unlike the St. Francis match, this night was much better, even though the Rangers would go down, 1-0.

Just before intermission, Forest Lake had a header cleared off the goal line by the Stillwater defense, which kept the game at 0-0 through the first 40 minutes.

“(We) could easily have been up 1-0,” Tilsen said. “We had a good half and all of the players now felt as though they can play with anyone.”

About the only thing that went wrong occurred during a basic play in the early stages of the second half, which gave the Ponies the game-winning goal.

A Forest Lake defender attempted to clear the ball, but it blasted off a Stillwater forward and deflected into the corner of Rangers net. Not exactly highlight material but that would cover the scoring.

“(It) was a real tough way to lose since we played great defense and created many chances,” Tilsen shared.

But overall the head coach felt it was a solid start to the season as the team now needs to find a way to win those close games.

“That is the next step,” Tilsen said.

His rapidly improving squad took on Cretin-Derham Hall on Tuesday and then already has a rematch at Mounds View on Sept. 6, before traveling to No. 9 ranked Woodbury on Saturday afternoon.

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