Roland Rangers visit Central Tigers on Thursday night

When the Roland Rangers and the Central Tigers met last year at Ranger Stadium, it was a nail biter. In fact, the game was decided on the final play of regulation when Central’s Aidan Sainer blocked the gamewinning field-goal attempt by Roland’s Logan Lorenz to preserve an 8-7 victory.

While avenging the loss when the two teams meet at 7 p.m. Thursday at Tiger Stadium is on the Rangers’ minds, so, too, is try to to stay focused on the tasks at hand.

“The players brought it up to me about how they want this one back,” Roland first-year coach Greg Wise said. “We were with them the entire game. We had a chance to win that game, and, at the end, it didn’t work out for us. 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, but I don’t want to dwell too much on things that haven’t gone well for them in the past. I want them to look forward to what our challenge is. I don’t want them to focus on things that might get them down.”

The Rangers (0-2) and the Tigers (0-2) each will try to get their first win of 2024, and one of them indeed will by the end of Thursday night.

The Rangers lost a hardfought 21-14 home opener to Lavaca, Ark., last Friday night at Ranger Stadium. With each passing day and week, Wise is seeing improvement in his team.

“Every week is good for us because we’re getting better each week,” Wise said. “Every day, it feels like we’re getting better. We’re looking forward to a great week of practice. (With) another week under our belt, we’ll get a lot more work done, and I think we’ll be more comfortable when things come for this week’s game. We do have a short week. It’s never easy when we have to do that, but I feel like we’re going to be prepared for it.”

On the other hand, the Tigers cannot wait to hit the field Thursday night so they can redeem themselves after losing 41-2 last Friday night on the road against the Warner Eagles.

“We are ready to take the field soon,” Central coach Jeremy Thompson said. “We for sure did not play our best football last Friday. The sooner we can get on the field, the better.”

Each coach has concerns about their opponents.

“They’re well coached,” Wise said. “Coach Thompson does a fantastic job over there with them. We know their kids are tough and a disciplined group. They fly around to the ball on defense. We know they’re very good on offense, running their quarterback and their running backs, and learning how to read a defense and take advantage of deficiencies the defense has. Coach Thompson puts his team in great positions to win ball games.We understand the challenge we’re up against. We know Central will be a hard team to face. I believe the work we’re going to put in this week, I think we’ll be a tough team, too. We’ve played Central the last few years, and we know what they run. We kind of understand what they’ll be doing. I think our defense will be prepared for it.”

“They’re very athletic,” Thompson said about the Rangers. “They have some very good receivers that can go get the football. They have good (running) backs. They have speed. When you play athleticism like they have, you’ve got to do things right. You can’t make mistakes. What they bring to the table athletically for us to defend, we’ve got to do things right.”

The coaching match-up is unique as it will set up a coach and one of his former assistants as Wise was an assistant coach for Thompson a few years ago at Central.

“Coach Wise is doing a very good job over there,” Thompson said. “He’s going to have them ready on Thursday night, so we’ve definitely got to come ready to play.”

The big key for each team is execution.

“Offensively, it all goes back to are we going to execute or are we not?,” Wise said. “Are we going to limit our turnovers and mistakes, or are we not? When we get to a point where we can put together some drives, some quarters and, eventually, a full game — and limit those mistakes — I think we’ll be just fine. We haven’t gotten to that point yet, but I know it’s coming — and I’m waiting for it, and our kids are working hard to get there. When we do, we’re going to be a good team.”

“The turnovers offensively, we can’t have that,” Thompson said. “We can’t turn the ball over. We have to execute in the run game up front. Those two things right there will solve a lot of problems for us. We’ve got to get things going this week. We’ve made several mistakes in areas where we have to correct those things — on both sides of the ball. The thing about it is, it’s not a matter of playing hard or effort. We have to correct some mistakes we have continued to make over the last couple of weeks. The No. 1 thing is to get the offense going this week. We need to put some points on the board. Once we do that, I think we’re going to be fine. These kids are going to play hard. We’ve got to get things straightened out before we get into district play.”

Both teams will come into Thursday night’s game healthy.