ROCKINGHAM — A tightly-contested soccer match between Richmond and Southern Lee ended in a 4-2 loss for the Raiders on Wednesday.
Opening Sandhills Athletic Conference play, the Raiders allowed two goals in the final 10 minutes to drop to 2-4 on the season.
Head coach Chris Larsen said the team anticipated a tough opponent in the Cavaliers, which started a loaded stretch of conference games over the next couple of weeks.
“Going into the new conference, we knew we’d have to bring our A game night in and night out,” Larsen said. “Teams will capitalize on your mistakes and that held true tonight, especially when we couldn’t clear the ball on the second goal.
“It was a good game, and I told the guys we’ll use this as a learning experience,” he added. “We’ll get better from it, and we’re really front-heavy to start conference play. I think one of these first four teams we play will likely be in the top three teams, including us fighting for a spot.”
Senior goalkeeper Ian Williams had a busy night defending Richmond’s goal, making numerous athletic saves in both halves. He made a sprawling save on an Erik Gutierrez shot in the 11th minute, and followed that with a diving catch against Angel Terrones a couple minutes later.
Senior goalkeeper Ian Williams makes a jump save in the first half. (Kyle Pillar/The Richmond Observer)
Terrones scored the Cavaliers’ first goal in the 19th minute, sending a free kick through a wall of defenders following a foul just outside the box.
Senior Alex Medina didn’t waste any time knotting the game, scoring a goal just 1:09 after Southern Lee took the lead.
Medina played a pass from sophomore Jesus Castro and lasered a shot from 35 yards, beating goalkeeper Danis Cabrera to the upper left corner in the 20th minute.
“I’ve been in a drought since the second game of the season and I’ve been telling myself I needed to score a goal to help the team,” Medina explained. “I just kicked the ball where I wanted it and it went in the net.
“Tonight proved we can compete, and it also let us know we have to continue working on some things. We’re not a bad team, we just have to touch up on some small mistakes.”
Teammates celebrate with senior Alex Medina (right) after his first-half goal. (Kyle Pillar/The Richmond Observer)
Williams made three more quality saves in the first half, including diving back to grab the ball before it rolled into the net following an initial save on Tyler Dileva. He also made a one-on-one save and caught a shot following a Terrones free kick.
With 3:33 remaining in the opening 40 minutes, Mario Miranda put the Cavs up 2-1 after collecting a second-chance opportunity. That score would hold until halftime.
“I felt like I owed it to the boys because I didn’t do as well as I could have on Monday,” Williams said. “I wanted to show that I’ve worked hard to earn my spot this year, and that I can make saves against a quality team in the conference.
“We showed we’ve continued to learn from our defensive mistakes, and we really believe we can play toward the top of the conference. We had a lot of scoring chances tonight, too, we just have to put them away.”
Sophomore Jesus Castro (19) helped set up both of Richmond’s goals on Tuesday. (Kyle Pillar/The Richmond Observer)
Senior forward Luke Williams had an early header attempt on a cross from Castro to start the second half, and quickly tied the game in the 44th minute.
On a counterattack, a long lead pass from Castro found Williams on the attacking side of midfield. Williams took a touch and moved past defender Levi Peraza, chipping his shot up and over Cabrera to make it a 2-2 game.
“Coming back twice proved to me that the guys didn’t give up and that they wanted to keep fighting,” Larsen said. “We didn’t change much after the third goal because we had chances around the net.
“But I’ll take the blame for the last one because I pushed some guys forward trying to get the equalizer,” he added. “We had to try and get one more and we were out-manned.”
Richmond had several other chances in the second half, including a rush from Castro, Han Jalbasuren and Cody Eason on net. Medina laced a shot off the crossbar in the 63rd minute.
Senior Luke Williams (22) scores in the second half against Southern Lee. (Kyle Pillar/The Richmond Observer)
After two Cavalier goals were negated due to an offsides call and Ian Williams having the ball kicked out of his hands, Isaac Mireles scored the go-ahead goal in the 70th minute.
Mireles added the final tally for Southern Lee (4-1, 1-0 SAC) with 37 seconds left in regulation.
“Ian has had a rough couple games because we stepped up the quality of play, but tonight he made some really good saves,” Larsen noted. “He came off his line on some one-vs.-ones, and made saves off the post and caught a redirection.
“He kept us in the game, and unfortunately he got his hand stepped on and he had to come out the last handful of minutes. Ethan McDonald did a good job coming in and closing the game out for us.”
Richmond (2-4, 0-1 SAC) will get a week off to prepare for SAC foe Pinecrest High School (5-0). Varsity play will begin next Wednesday at home at 7 p.m.
JV Raiders notch another win to stay perfect
Playing on the road at Hoke County High School on Wednesday, the Richmond junior varsity boys’ soccer team defeated the Bucks 4-2.
Putting the ball into the net for Richmond were sophomore Noah Williams and freshman Noah Gil. Both had two goals in the win, and Williams added an assist. Sophomore James Eason was credited with two assists.
Improving to 6-0 to start the new campaign, coach Bennie Howard and the JV squad will play Pinecrest on Wednesday, starting at 5 p.m.
