It took a lot of fight and determination for the Reeths-Puffer boys soccer team to avoid its first loss of the season.
The Rockets trailed a very strong Forest Hills Central team on two different occasions in a Friday night road game, but answered each time and emerged with a 2-2 tie in the non-conference matchup.
R-P is now 2-0-1 on the season.
Nick Clemens
Forest Hills Central, which won 16 games last season, scored about a minute into the contest, but the Rockets answered with a goal from Nick Clemens with about six minutes left in the first half.
The Rangers pulled ahead with a goal about 10 minutes into the second half, but R-P evened things up again with about eight minutes remaining when Kaden Vanderlaan found the net following a free kick.
Battling back to salvage a tie against a tough opponent clearly pleased R-P Coach Kody Harrell.
Kaden Vanderlaan
“The boys did an excellent job with settling in and not letting that early goal snowball out of control for us,” he said. “This was a great early season test for us against a very quality opponent with tons of skill. To get scored on so early in the game against a team of this caliber and battling back on two occasions, in a game that just didn’t have many calls go our way, just speaks volumes about the perseverance this group has.
“We just have to keep focusing on the next play, and we will be just fine.”
The Rockets will host Caledonia on Monday in their first O-K Green conference game of the season, then will travel to play rival Mona Shores on Wednesday.
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