SOUTHERN PINES — The biggest takeaway Richmond head soccer coach Chris Larsen said about Friday’s match at Pinecrest High School was it was “a learning experience.”
The Lady Raiders battled heavy rain and a tough Lady Patriots team in their second Sandhills Athletic Conference game of the season, and fell by a final score of 9-0. Pinecrest scored the mercy-rule goal with 5:28 left in regulation.
It marked the third mercy-rule loss by Richmond to Pinecrest in the last four meetings between the two teams. The shutout loss made it the first time 11 games, dating back to last season, that Richmond failed to find the back of the net.
Senior Lady Patriot Keeley Cooper was responsible for four of her team’s goals. Pinecrest scored three goals in the first half, before tacking on six more in the second.
“Pinecrest has been the golden standard for a long time,” Larsen said. “I chalked tonight up as a learning experience for our girls. Everyone got to play, which is good because it gave them experience in this type of game and atmosphere.
“The biggest thing I told the girls is that the score doesn’t always represent how we played,” he added. “As the game went along, we were able to talk about adjustments on the sidelines. The girls went in and did a better job of figuring things out in the second half.”
Sophomore Monica Etowski opened the scoring in the eighth minute on a grounder to sophomore goalkeeper Kelly Hoffman’s right. Cooper scored her first goal five minutes later on a through ball between a pair of Richmond defenders.
Cooper scored her second goal in the 21st minute, running a play similar to her first tally.
In the final 20 minutes of the first half, Hoffman made a couple of nice saves to keep the game close. She tipped a Lorin Wagler shot over the crossbar, and followed up with a diving save on a Cooper ball.
The Richmond backfield also had some timely plays, starting with an Avy Lucero kick save along the mouth of the goal. Jayana Nicholson, Emily Buie, Kaiyah Sriratanakoul and Tatum Hubbard also cleared bouncing balls before the half.
Moments after Pinecrest scored the opening goal, Richmond appeared to tie the game on a Valery Standridge shot inside the goalie box, but the Lady Raiders were whistled for offsides.
Freshman forward Kaitlyn Huff, who leads Richmond with three goals on the season, had a pair of decent shots that just missed. Her first was a 20-yard blast right on frame, and the other came on a run down the left sideline that saw the ball cross the box and sail wide right.
Danielle Richmond and Cooper opened the second half with two goals, Richmond’s coming off a Hoffman rebound. Cooper’s hat trick goal in the 45th minute was a redirect after the ball deflected off the crossbar.
Cooper’s final goal of the night came inside the 18-yard box less than two minutes later, and Larsen replaced Hoffman in goal with senior Abbey Coward.
Olivia Longfellow, Lauren Landry and Abby Veit scored three close-range goals against Coward in an 18-minute span to end the game.
“I thought we were competitive in the first half, and the girls did what I wanted them to do,” Larsen explained. “We were trying to mark up the Pinecrest players and and not chase so much. They just beat us with some speed on the outside in the first half.
“All the things we did wrong are correctable,” he closed. “We’ll watch the game film and try and fix it Monday at practice. Hopefully have those things corrected when we play on Tuesday.”
Richmond (2-1, 1-1 SAC) will host Jack Britt High School (3-0, 2-0 SAC) on Tuesday, March 12, at 7 p.m.
