The good news for the Roland Rangers in their 2024 football season home opener vs. Lavaca, Ark., last Friday night at Ranger Stadium was they played a lot better than in their season opener Sept. 5 vs. Muldrow in “The Battle of 64.”
Unfortunately, a few miscues helped the visiting Golden Arrows to leave town with a 21-14 victory.
After each team exchanged interceptions, the Rangers (0-2), who got the possession thanks to Paul Johnson’s INT, went 36 yards in six plays as Billy McElhaney took it in from a yard out with 2:49 left in the first quarter. He also added the extra point for a 7-0 lead after the opening period.
After the Golden Arrows (1-2) tied the game at 7-all with 9:06 remaining in the first half on a 55-yard interception return by Gage Lautzenheiser, the Rangers regained the lead on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Austin Benham to Damarion West with 5:46 left before halftime. McElhaney’s PAT put Roland ahead 14-7 at halftime. Benham threw for 202 yards and a touchdown.
The Golden Arrows tied the game once more at 14-all with a 19-yard TD pass in the third quarter, then took the lead with 4:55 left to play in the game on a 1-yard touchdown run.
First-year coach Greg Wise was pleased with the improvement his team showed from Week 1 to Week 2.
“I think we improved from the past week (against Muldrow),” he said. “We had a great week of practice and a lot of good preparation. We made the switch to go with Austin Benham, a true freshman, at quarterback. From what showed us in practice. Dalton Crossno, who had been playing quarterback, has played the majority of his career as a running back. He was comfortable with that. We brought Austin in, and we thought it would give us a good chance with Dalton running the ball — and it did. It worked out pretty well for us. Overall, I think we did improve, and that’s a good sign.”
While it wasn’t as bad as the eight giveaways the Rangers had against Muldrow, Roland still had three INTs and committed 14 penalties for 110 yards.
“The thing that is still getting us right now is our penalties, the simple mistakes we’re making and we’re having turnovers at inopportune times,” Wise said. “Right now, those are our nemeses. We did have a few turnovers against Lavaca, but we cleaned up a lot of issues we’re having.”
The Rangers will have a short week as they will travel to meet the Central Tigers at 7 p.m. Thursday at Tiger Stadium. The Tigers won 8-7 last season at Ranger Stadium as Central’s Aidan Sainer blocked an attempted game-winning field goal on the game’s final play.
“The players brought it up to me about how they want this one back,” Wise said. “They’re looking at this Central game as a kind of redemption for them from last year. It’s going to be a little bit more motivation for us this week.”
