SOUTHERN PINES — Wednesday’s match for the Lady Raider soccer team had a much different feel to it than its season opener earlier in the week.
Unable to get in a rhythm or stop the offensive attack by Pinecrest High School, Richmond lost 9-0. The Sandhills Athletic Conference match ended at halftime.
“We got down early and got beat on the outside with speed,” head coach Chris Larsen said. “We didn’t really have good touches tonight and we allowed too many simple turnovers that let (Pinecrest) score some easy goals.”
The Lady Patriots (2-0 SAC) scored a goal in the first 63 seconds on a shot from Abigail Kennedy. A chip from Keaton Clark in the 10th minute made it 2-0, and was the first of her game-high four goals.
Also scoring for Pinecrest were Blair Rice (18th minute), Savannah Dunahay (26th minute), Lauren Landry (36th minute) and Anika Gulovich (34th minute).
Larsen said the gap between competition “didn’t really benefit anybody,” and that his focus every game is to get his girls as much playing time as possible to work on improving as the season goes along.
“Clearly he (Corey Rice) would rather run the score up and pad the stat sheet than let the girls play,” Larsen said. “Once we got down five goals, I decided I was going to let all of our girls play and wanted to get them some time on the field.”
Senior goalkeeper Kelly Hoffman made a handful of tough saves in the game, and was replaced in net by fellow senior Jayla McDougald after the sixth goal. Before her exit, Hoffman made a penalty kick save on Dunahay in the 25th minute.
“The good thing is everyone was able to get some minutes and got to see where we need to keep working,” Larsen said. “Hopefully we can regroup and get better for Monday.
“The girls understand they have to clean up on their fundamentals and it’s not going to happen overnight,” he closed. “It’s one of those things where we have to raise our game and fight the fight.”
The Lady Raiders (1-1 SAC) will look to return to the win column with their first home match of the season Monday against Jack Britt High School (2-0). Varsity play will begin at 6 p.m.
JV Lady Raiders fall to Pinecrest in opener
In a tightly contested junior varsity match, the JV Lady Raiders fell to Pinecrest by a score of 2-1 to open their season.
Freshman Allie Rodgers had the goal for Richmond on an assist from Andrea Ellerbe in the first half.
“We outplayed them the majority of the game, but we just couldn’t finish the match,” JV head coach Tad Hamilton said. “We made two simple mistakes and Pinecrest was able to score on both of them.”
