ROCKINGHAM – At the onset of his final season as the Richmond Senior High School Lady Raiders soccer coach, Bennie Howard had one goal: and that was to put up a successful season and leave his 30-year coaching career behind with a “smile on his face.”
And while his team fell just short of advancing to the second round of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association 4A state playoffs last week, Howard said that his last ride as the head coach was “most definitely” a success.
“We finished the season with a 17-6 record, and I’ll take that record any year,” Howard said in a sit-down interview. “I give all the credit to the girls because they knew we had the potential to be a better team than we were last year. And looking back, I think we really fulfilled that aspect.”
The 17 overall wins broke the previous school record of 16 wins in a season, which was set twice before during the 2002 (16-8) and 2004 (16-6-2) seasons.
The Lady Raiders achieved success in the 2018 regular season and the Sandhills Athletic Conference tournament after losing their top goal-scorer in senior Cassie McFayden (Lees-McRae College), who sent 30 balls to the back of the net in 2017. Also gone were four-year starting goalkeeper Tatyana Gould and center back Altman Griffin. But Howard knew before anybody else what his current team was capable of doing.
“One of the things at the beginning of the season was to find someone to fill the void of Cassie with scoring goals,” Howard recalled. “I wanted to have three girls score 10 or more goals, and we fulfilled that with Hanna (Millen), Chloe (Wiggins) and Morgan (Hooks).
“When we started the season in February, I thought of last season and how we went 14-6 and made it to the conference championship match,” Howard continued. “I knew we had a great squad coming back, and we built off that. I knew we had the talent to replace the seniors who were no longer with us.”
It was the three Lady Raiders Howard mentioned that would come together to lead the team in scoring. Millen, who is a senior striker, notched a team best 13 goals in 2018, which was one better than her junior year. She had two hat tricks this season, both of which came against Hoke County, and the more important one coming in the first round of the Sandhills Athletic Conference tournament.
Hooks and Wiggins, both of whom are junior midfielders, exploded onto the scene and became the players Howard hoped they’d develop into. Both scored 12 goals in 23 games played, with Wiggins making a big leap in scoring differential, as she only scored two during her sophomore year on the varsity team. Hooks jumped from five goals in 2017 to 12, and Wiggins led the team with 15 assists.
Another player who “continued to grow” throughout the 2018 campaign was junior Jayana Nicholson, who was one goal away from from reaching double digits. As a team, Richmond blasted 72 goals past opposing goalkeepers, and the strong defensive front only allowed 42 goals to be scored against them. This was all part of Howard’s progression efforts.
“The team and I had set lofty goals at the beginning of the season,” Howard said, explaining that they wanted to win a SAC regular season title and win the conference tournament. “Of course, you set them high to try and reach them. We came very close to our goals, finishing tied for second (with Jack Britt), and then making it back to the conference championship game. Even though we lost (to Pinecrest), I’m very happy with the people we had and the effort that was put forth.
“The last three years, the girls have progressed up the ladder in the conference,” Howard added. “Obviously, they want to be in the No.1 spot. But all of this achievement is on the girls.”
The Lady Raiders started the season winning eight of their first 10 games, with their first loss of the year coming at home to eventual SAC champion Pinecerst High School. It was a season of “progression” that Howard hoped to build for after he retired from the sidelines.
“The whole team progressed throughout the season,” Howard explained. “It was their hard work with building skills and their knowledge of the game that led to our success. This year was a total team effort.”
Howard noted that Millen “stepped her game up,” Nicholson was “a very consistent player” and that Hooks “started playing her best soccer around midseason.” He also explained that having Wiggins score 12 goals was a positive, but it was her “assists that were great.” Part of Howard’s gameplan each night was to get the ball to Wiggins down the right sideline and have her cross it into the box to an awaiting teammate.
“We scored some pretty goals this year,” Howard noted as he smiled trying to remember his favorite moments of his final season. “Chloe’s crosses were beautiful, and Jayana scored three or four goals that she absolutely ripped. Hanna was fun to watch with all her speed, and there were a couple of times where she ran into a brick wall, got up, and was knocked down again. I liked our whole team’s toughness.”
But the single-season win record couldn’t have been accomplished without a solid wall of defenders behind the frontlines and ahead of rookie sophomore goalkeeper Allexis Swiney. After losing Griffin to a commitment to focus on college volleyball, Howard plugged his center back positions with senior Shelby Matheson and junior Tatum Hubbard.
Those two, combined with left outside back senior Kathleen Pittman and right outside back Avy Lucero, Richmond managed to keep their opponents to one goal or fewer in 13 games. Of those 13 games, Swiney didn’t allow a single goal in seven of them.
“Avy, Shelby, Tatum and KP did a great job,” Howard said of his backline. “As a defense, they played well together and it was a team effort.
“And Allexis in net was solid, too,” he added. “With her being as athletic as she is, it wasn’t a hard transition. It was a lot like on-the-job training, and I give credit to (goalie coach) Vince Paparella.”
Richmond’s best stretch of the season came in the second half, when it won seven in a row. Five of those matches were regular season contests, and the final two were the opening and semifinal rounds of the SAC tournament. With its win over Jack Britt, Richmond secured a first-round home playoff game for the first time since 2004.
Though the Lady Raiders would lose control late against Porter Ridge High School last week and were eliminated from playoff contention, Howard is still proud of everything his team accomplished this year.
And that, he said, brings a smile to his face.
