Rangers kick off football season with home game

The Hill City High School Rangers  football team began its season on Aug. 19 against Tripp-Delmont.

“The 52-14 loss was a good gauge of where we feel we can be at, especially defensively,” said head coach Brett Eckert.

The team gave a solid first half defensive effort showing “glimmers” of what Eckert hopes the team will be on defense. Eckert described Tripp-Delmont as a big team that can lean on its opponent.

“Our boys were able to force them to string together 15-plus play drives in order to score which is a positive. We need to find ways to prevent bigger gains such as six yards on any single carry to put our defense in a better position.  Holding them to 20 in the first half was growth especially when we had two blown assignments that led to two of their three scores.”

Eckert knows discipline is a key factor.

“If we can stay disciplined and not have those mental lapses we are most likely going into half either tied or up.

“The team is still struggling on its offense. Offensively we were able to get our passing game going a bit but we will need to get better with our run game if we want to have much success this season.”

Dairy Twist at Three Forks closed for the game opener. A post on Facebook said it was to “support our family and local Hll City sports events.” Eckert was not aware of this but said the support was greatly appreciated

 “I know our boys appreciate all the positive support they receive. We just hope to be able to continue to get better each day and hopefully in the near future we are filling those beautiful new grandstands,” he said.

 The Rangers travel to Lead-Deadwood Sept. 1  to take on the 0-1 Golddiggers.