ROCKINGHAM — Unable to keep up with its opponent’s speed Wednesday, the Richmond Senior High School soccer team was shut out.
Just the fourth time this season the Lady Raiders weren’t able to score, they lost 3-0 to visiting Cape Fear High School.
The Lady Colts scored two first-half goals off the foot of Jayda Angel. Using her speed to break into the box, Angel scored in the 11th and 17th minutes.
Richmond committed a foul in the box in the second half, which led to Cape Fear’s final goal. Scoring the penalty kick was Kayia Starling to make it 3-0 in the 57th minute.
“(Angel) has scored 20+ goals in about 10 games,” head coach Chris Larsen said. “She’s the fastest girl we’ve seen so far and probably the fastest we will see this season. She created some havoc for us by getting in some tight spaces and getting behind our defense.
“We couldn’t rebound after those two early goals. We tried, we attempted to get things going but we just couldn’t get anything on frame the rest of the half.”
The Lady Raiders had three quality chances to find the back of the net in the second half, starting with a shot from junior Hanna Smith. Beating a defender on a run down the right side, Smith took a good angled shot but saw it stopped on a diving save.
Sophomore Jentry Denson sent a long strike on frame in the 63rd minute that sailed into the upper left corner of the goal and forced the keeper to make the deflection.
Howell also put a shot from distance on frame in the 70th minute, but another timely save kept the ball out of the net.
“Hanna, Jentry and Evie created some chances, we just couldn’t get over that hump tonight,” Larsen closed. “I’m hoping that playing tough competition like this will serve us well and help us in the long run.”
The Lady Raiders (7-6-2, 4-3 Sandhills Athletic Conference) wrap up their three-match week Friday at Hoke County High School (3-8-2, 1-4 SAC).
Richmond is in fourth place in the conference standings, while the Lady Bucks are in fifth place. The 4A conference contest will start at 7 p.m.
JV Lady Raiders complete comeback
The Richmond junior varsity girls soccer team erased a halftime deficit to defeat Cape Fear 2-1 Wednesday.
After trailing 1-0 at halftime, Kellie Gomez knotted the score on an assist from Cadence Gazoo. Scoring the game-winning tally was Gazoo.
“We had a much better performance tonight than we did last night,” head coach Bennie Howard said. “The girls actually played like they were supposed to and we fought back to overcome a 1-0 deficit at halftime.
“Kellie and Cadence both gave us a little oomph tonight and it was good to see them score.”
The JV Lady Raiders (5-2-1, 1-2-1 SAC) will also travel to Hoke County Friday. Play is set for 5:15 p.m.
