ROCKINGHAM – It’s been a tough go for the Richmond Senior High School varsity soccer team this week, as Thursday’s 6-3 loss to non-conference opponent Terry Sanford High School marked the team’s third-straight loss.
The match against the Bulldogs was the Raiders’ third competition this week, as entering the night, they had already competed in two physical losses against Sandhills Athletic Conference rivals Pinecrest (Monday) and Jack Britt (Wednesday) high schools.
Thursday’s match got off to a fast start for the Raiders (5-8), as they scored two goals in the opening 10 minutes to go up 2-0 against the Bulldogs (13-1). In the opening minute, junior forward Luke Hawks used his speed to collect a bobbling ball inside the box to blast it past Terry Sanford goalkeeper Matt Brown.
Larsen compared Hawks’ team-leading fifth goal of the season to the two scores he netted just 56 seconds apart against Lee County High School on Aug. 30. Unfortunately for Hawks and the Raiders, he would be removed from the game after Larsen saw him nursing a shoulder injury that he had sustained prior to the game.
It was senior forward Steven Morales, Hawks’ replacement, who came off the bench to net the two remaining Richmond goals on the night. Just a couple of minutes after Hawks broke the scoreless tie, Morales collected a rebound in the box on a shot by teammate Alexis Gonzalez and booted it past Brown from 10 yards out for his third goal of the season.
“We came out of the gates strong tonight,” Larsen said. “I sat Luke even though he scored because I didn’t feel comfortable letting him play with his shoulder — I didn’t want him to re-injure it. But Steven came up big for us tonight off the bench.”
Despite the fast start, it was Terry Sanford’s offensive unit that sprang into life in the remaining 30 minutes of the opening half. Behind what Larsen noted as a “speedy” effort, the Bulldogs netted five unanswered goals to enter halftime with a 5-2 lead. Scoring for Terry Sanford were Jared Miller (twice), Carson Bradley, Cameron Davis and Davis Molnar. Miller now has 21 goals on the season.
“The first goal we let in came off of their speed,” Larsen commented. “Then the second one was after we committed a foul and they were able to put it through all three guys in our wall and it went into the back of the net untouched.
“The third goal was scored when they took it down the touch line and took a shot that deflected off one of our guys and past Jackson (Haley),” he added. “From there, they added two more goals before the half.”
Larsen explained that he told his players that he knew “tonight was going to be a challenge” because Terry Sanford is a “quality team” and he knew his guys’ legs were tired from battling Pinecrest and Jack Britt earlier in the week.
The second half saw much less scoring, and it was the Bulldogs’ Fabian Macias who extended the lead to four goals in the 60th minute. Macias took possession along the left third of the field and ripped a shot from 30 yards out at backup keeper Kaden Walker, which slipped through his hands and into the net.
Morales would end the night’s scoring in the 70th minute when he took a through ball near the top of the box along the right sideline. Going one-on-one with Brown, Morales’ initial shot was batted down, but he bruised his way past the keeper to toe in his fourth goal of the season.
“We went 0-3 this week, so we’ll try to go 3-0 next week,” Larsen concluded.
After Thursday’s game, Richmond now sits in fifth place in the SAC standings, a full game behind Lumberton High School. With the regular season down to just seven matches, every game is important if the Raiders want to return to the state playoffs.
The Raiders will try to get themselves back in playoff contention with three more SAC matches next week, starting with a road game at Hoke County High School (10-1, 6-0 SAC) on Monday. They’ll close the week at home by hosting Lumberton (6-6-1, 3-3 SAC) Wednesday and Scotland High School (3-8, 1-5 SAC) Thursday. All matches are scheduled for 7 p.m.
