PEMBROKE — A late-game foul, an expired clock and a well-placed shot were all components in the Richmond Senior High School girls’ soccer team’s win Tuesday.
Battling cold temperatures on the road at Purnell Swett High School, the Lady Raiders opened their Sandhills Athletic Conference schedule with a 3-2 win over the host Lady Rams. But the win wasn’t easy for Chris Larsen’s team, as it came after letting two one-goal leads slip away earlier in the game.
“I told the girls that regardless of what they’ve done over the past two years against Purnell Swett, every year is a new year,” Larsen explained. “We can’t go off of what we remember them as — we have to show up and play.
“Purnell wanted it more than we did tonight,” he added. “They played a heck of a game and my girls were very fortunate to come out of here with a victory.”
With the game knotted 2-2 with less than a minute left in regulation, senior Jayana Nicholson made a run on goal for Richmond up the middle of the field and was fouled . With the clock winding, the head official whistled play to a stop, indicating a free kick for Richmond just outside the 18-yard box.
Junior defender Avy Lucero, Larsen’s go-to direct kicker, rushed to beat the clock, but saw her attempt blown dead. The final buzzer sounded, but Lucero was still awarded an opportunity to take a shot.
She chipped the ball over a wall of defenders and watched it bounce off the crossbar and behind goalkeeper Monica Lowry for the win.
“At the end, the official told me that if she had let the play go on, we would have scored in regulation,” Larsen explained of the late-game theatrics. “She didn’t call the game (into overtime) and let us get our final play in because of all the confusion. Luckily, Avy was able to put it in the back of the net.”
Richmond opened the night’s scoring thanks to a Chloe Wiggins goal in the ninth minute. The senior midfielder gained possession from Jada Jacobs near midfield and raced inside the box before blasting her second goal of the season into the upper right corner to make it 1-0.
Less than two minutes later, the Lady Rams responded when Layla Locklear lifted a shot from the top of the box over the hands of sophomore goalkeeper Kelly Hoffman in the 11th minute.
Richmond looked to take the lead inside the eight-minute mark of the first half on an own-goal by Purnell Swett, but two Lady Raiders were called for being offsides on the play. Instead, the two teams entered the break tied at a goal apiece.
Freshman Kaitlyn Huff gave Richmond its second lead of the night just 1:22 into the second half. She took an outlet pass up the middle of field and worked around a defender to beat Lowry by toeing the ball into the net. In just her second game at the varsity level, she leads the team with three goals.
Hoffman, who is also in her first full season as the starter between the posts, made timely saves against Locklear and Jacobs in the 43rd and 47th minutes. She added a one-handed save in the 55th minute, and laid out to grab a rolling ball from Abigail Lowry minutes later to maintain the lead.
With 14:07 left in regulation, Purnell Swett’s Maddison Oxendine notched her fourth goal of the season when she knocked a ball past Hoffman on a tight-angled shot inside the box to tie the game.
Leading up to Lucero’s game-winning goal, both Wiggins and Huff made runs at the net in the final three minutes. Wiggins saw a chip shot sail over the bar, and another ball crossed in front of the net. Huff managed to get inside of the keeper’s box, by Monica Lowry made a diving save.
“Both Chloe and Kaitlyn have been there with speed and are able to get behind the back line and get shots of frame,” Larsen said. “A lot of our girls can score, and those two just happened to be in the right place at the right time — that’s what soccer is sometimes.
“We have to find consistency,” he concluded. “We’ve watched film from our first scrimmage and first game and that was the biggest thing we saw. At times we play really well, and other times we’ll go through spurts where we go back to bad habits.”
The Lady Raiders (2-0, 1-0 SAC) will look to keep things rolling against SAC opponents with their next road test Friday at reigning conference champion Pinecrest High School (2-0-1, 1-0 SAC). The Lady Patriots went 14-0 in SAC play last season. The game is set for 7 p.m.
Note: In junior varsity action, the Lady Raiders defeated Purnell Swett 4-0. Scoring for Richmond (1-0) were sophomores Morgan Cauley and Alma Lopez, and freshmen Paxlee Faircloth and Sheila Martinez. Richmond scored two goals in each half.
