SANFORD — The Richmond Raider soccer team started its second round of Sandhills Athletic Conference play with a loss on Wednesday.
Despite matching their season-high in goals with six scores two nights earlier, the Raiders could only find the back of the net one time in a 3-1 decision at Southern Lee High School.
In what started as a defensive battle between the two teams, the Cavaliers scored two goals in the first half. The 2-0 deficit for Richmond would hold through the intermission.
Southern Lee added its final goal of the game in the 65th minute to go ahead by three goals. Scoring for the Cavs (7-5, 4-3 SAC) were Erik Gutierrez, Juan Liendo and Angel Terrones.
Senior forward Justin McDougald managed to get the Raiders on the board with an unassisted goal in the 73rd minute. The tally was McDougald’s second in two games, having also scored in the team’s win over Scotland High School earlier this week.
“We played well defensively, but couldn’t get anything going on the offensive end tonight,” head coach Chris Larsen said.
“I don’t think we were all 100% committed to playing the full 80 minutes,” he continued. “It showed at times, but we have a few more games to see if we can pick up some wins and sneak into the playoffs.”
Richmond (4-9, 2-5 SAC) currently sits in fifth place in the conference standings and third among the 4A schools.
The Raiders will have another tough conference slate next week with road games at Pinecrest (9-1-1, 3-0-1 SAC) and Hoke County (11-2, 4-1 SAC). Richmond will play the Patriots on Monday and visit the Bucks on Wednesday, with both games starting at 7 p.m.
JV Raiders fall to Pinecrest
The Raider junior varsity soccer team was also in action Wednesday, hosting Pinecrest High School in a non-conference match.
Despite their efforts, the JV Raiders lost 3-0 to the JV Patriots. The game was played as a non-SAC game because Southern Lee doesn’t have a junior varsity team.
The JV Raiders (8-2-1, 2-1-1 SAC) will also play Pinecrest and Hoke County next week, beginning at 5 p.m.
