Shkara Rantall’s side committed to playing ‘the beautiful game’ in pre-season, and the work is paying off.

Rangers put five goals past Ballarat on Sunday to become Ballarat and District Soccer Association league leaders.

“A lot of the Ballarat teams play strong, passing soccer. They know where their teammates are going to be and we knew that was something we needed to focus on this year,” Rantall said.

“We’re really excited for this year as a whole. We have so many new players who have some experience and who have played before so we’re feeling good about it.

“We’ve also had two girls come in (Rebecca Van Woolingen and Bella Kpoyo) who have never played soccer before and they’ve really stepped up. We’ve basically taught them how to kick a ball.

“They’ve both got great potential.”

Rantall said while the scoreline was heavily swayed in Rangers’ favour, the match was tough.

“It sounds like it was easy because we scored five goals but it definitely wasn’t easy,” she said.

“They played really well and put up a really good fight. We were surprised we could get five goals against them because they’re a strong side.”

Rangers’ men defeated Ballarat four goals to one courtesy of a Clinton Demartin hat-trick. Ryan Bail chimed in with one goal.