By: Mohammed Ramzanali

Man oh man are the Rangers boys’ soccer team rolling. No matter if it is a halftime deficit comeback or an overtime win, they get the job done. After tirelessly working their way through the district playoffs,  they won the Division I title for the first time in WHS history.  

On November 16, the boys traveled to Bolton to play at Nashoba Regional High School against a fierce Amherst-Pelham boys’ soccer team that has only let up one goal in their entire postseason.

And, tonight, one goal is all it would take.

Westborough’s and Amherst’s defenses played very well throughout the whole game batting away balls and protecting their respective keepers.

With a half time score of 0-0, the Rangers and the Hurricanes both knew they had to change their game strategy to pull out a victory. Yet regulation time ended with a score of 0-0 and an over time had to decide this game. Overtime is a single 10 minute quarter in which whatever team scores first is awarded the victory.

With only seconds remaining in overtime, the Rangers were allowed a free kick about three and a half feet from the corner of the field. Sophomore Rian Barrett kicked the ball to the back post where sophomore Tyler Stott dove and  headed the ball in the goal right past Amherst keeper Liam Carolan. As mentioned earlier, Carolan had only let up one goal this whole postseason.

Talking to Stott he said two things that has become religious among the team. The first was that the team never stopped fighting and they never counted themselves out. The second was that they continued to play one game at a time.

On Saturday, Westborough will take on Lexington in the state final game. All the off season training, all the captains practices, all the losses, all the penalties all the ups and downs of the soccer season will come down to one game. One game that will consist of two 40 minute halves. One game that will have 22 total players on the field trying to achieve a mutual goal: trying to become state champions.

See you Saturday night 11/19 at 7pm in Lynn at Manning field, Ranger nation.