The Fountain Hills High School golf team started their 2018 season with two losses but solid performances from Falcon golfers.

The Falcons faced off against Northwest Christian on March 5 and fell to them by seven strokes.

On March 6, FHHS took on the Valley Christian and lost by only four stokes.

The Falcons’ next match is away on March 27 against Arete Prep.

“I was really happy with how the two games went considering who our opponents were,” said head coach Willie Dudley. “It was a good start to the season for us.”

Northwest

In the match against Northwest Christian the top five finishers for FHHS were Ben Danko at -1, Adam Conner with +3, Ryan Chzech at +6, Collin Robbins with +9 and Ryan Timm with +12.

Danko had a terrific game where he went shot for shot with Northwest Christian’s star player, Frankie Capan, a PGA contender who is signed to play golf at the University of Alabama.

Danko was able to hold his own against the AJGA Puerto Rico Junior Open winner and only fell behind Capan by one stroke.

“Ben really did a great job of focusing during the game,” said Dudley. “He kept his head in the game the whole time.”

Valley Christian

In the match-up against Valley Christian, the top five Falcon golfers were Collin Robbins with a +2, Ryan Czech at +3, Ryan Timm at +5, Adam Conner with a +6 and McKinley Ritchie at +10.

The standout player in this match for FHHS was Robbins, who was able to move up to the top of the ranks from the match against Northwest Christian.

“Collin (Robbins) really did a great job of bouncing back,” said Dudley. “He struggled a little during the first match-up but was able to refocus himself.”

Despite being happy with how the team is looking, Dudley still thinks there are some areas of play that the team needs to work on.

“We need to focus on not giving away points in our putting game,” Dudley said. “We also need to have less blow-away holes.”