The Fountain Hills High School golf team had back-to-back matches last week and will have another pair of back-to-back matches this week. The Falcons will play their final home match today, Wednesday, April 26, and tee off will be at 3:30 p.m.

Head coach Bob Buczek plans to play all his Falcons in the season finale. There are no seniors on the team, but Buczek encourages people to come out for the first hole and support the team.

The Falcons were on the road at Chaparral Pines in Payson for a cold and windy day last Wednesday, April 19. The Falcons took second place, and junior Ethan Schafer led the team at 43, and freshmen Riley Murdock and Adam Oberg followed with 46 and 47, respectively.

Juniors Jaxson Butcher followed with 48, and Tom Tiebert with 51. Sophomore Savannah Miller finished at 59, and fellow sophomore Zoe Kohoutek rounded out the scores with 66.

“We’re just trying to win,” Schafer said. “We’re practicing a lot. We’re practicing every day so hopefully the next match we win…We’re [ranked] 17th and 17 teams make it. We have to finish good because there’s a lot of teams dropping right now.”

The Falcons have kept their ranking around No. 15 to No. 17 all season, and they are worried about losing ground in the final weeks of the regular season. The Falcons have four more matches and four more chances to improve their scores at the time of writing.

The Falcons played their 10th match of the season at Trilogy Golf at Power Ranch on Thursday, April 20. The Falcons took second place again, but this time Tiebert led the team with 42.

Schafer was second at 45, and Murdock was third at 57. Oberg and Butcher tied at 50.

“We had a couple of matches that didn’t help a whole lot, and now were down to the last four,” Buczek said. “Everybody else is dropping all their high scores and there’s a lot of movement in the rankings right now, so we just need to play good golf to make it.”

Buczek saw some of his players practicing the chipping and putting drills that PGA pro Steve Alker showed them, and they showed improvement in those areas. The best seven scores from the season are counted in rankings, and the Falcons can erase a bad outing from early on with a strong one at the end of the season.

Even if the team doesn’t qualify for state, the Falcons could send athletes to compete individually. Schafer’s older brother competed as an individual at state for the past two years, and he’s in a prime position to make it this year either way.

“Believe me, I have my spreadsheet out and I’m calculating the numbers and going ‘what do we have to do to get the team in state?’” Buczek said. “It looks like Ethan will probably make state. He has a better shot at making state than our team does right now.”

Buczek also said that Tiebert has a good chance of making state. The pressure is on, and the Falcons have their second chance of the week at home today. The Falcons played at McCormick Ranch Golf Course after press time yesterday, April 25.

Next Tuesday, the Falcons will head out to Kokopelli to face Gilbert Christian, Tempe Prep and Gilbert Classical. Their final match of the regular season will be the Metro Invitational Golf Tournament on Friday, May 5, at Sun City Golf Club.