ROCKINGHAM – The Richmond Senior High School varsity soccer team checked off one of its major goals of the season Monday during its regular season finale against visiting Sandhills Athletic Conference foe Lumberton High School.
The Raiders used three second-half goals to sink the Pirates 3-0, and with the victory, they finished the regular season on a seven-game winning streak. Adding another tick in the win column also secured a tie for second place in the SAC standings with Hoke County High School, as the late-season push saw Richmond (12-8, 10-4 SAC) surge from fourth place three weeks ago into a tie with the Bucks (14-5, 10-4 SAC).
Monday’s victory marked the second time the Raiders defeated Kenneth Simmons’ fifth-place Pirates (10-11-1, 7-7 SAC) during the current winning streak, as they plundered Lumberton 3-1 less than a week ago on the road. Scoring for Richmond was senior forward Carlos Alcocer, whose two goals in 41 seconds added insurance after junior Steven Morales broke the scoreless tie midway through the second half.
“We were dominating all night and we had some scoring opportunities in the first half but we couldn’t connect,” first-year head coach Chris Larsen said following the win. “At halftime, I told the guys that in a game like this, it takes just one goal to break things open. My phrase to them was ‘when we score,’ because I knew it was going to happen, we were going to keep putting shots in the net.
“Steven was able to get a nice shot on frame to get us started,” he added. “And Carlos came back with two shots that deflected off the keeper’s hands and into the net less than a minute apart. It was a quality soccer match tonight and I’m proud of the guys.”
Although the first half didn’t see either team light the lamp, it was Richmond that had the upper hand. The first 15 minutes of the match were fairly even, as both teams traded possession near midfield. Senior Nolan Allen got the first couple of scoring chances for the Raiders in the 16th minute, as he knocked a pass from teammate Alexis Gonzalez off the hands of Lumberton goalkeeper Joan Carillo. On the ensuing corner kick, Allen lasered his shot on net, but this time right into the hands of an expectant Carillo.
Morales had an opportunity in the 20th minute, as he made a rush into the 18-yard both. Despite appearing to be held by two separate Pirate defenders, he ripped a shot on frame that was batted down by Carillo. Richmond’s last chance in the opening 40 minutes of play came on a tic-tac-toe passing play started by Alcocer, who booted the ball backwards to junior Noah Jordan on a no-look pass. Jordan chipped it to Gonzalez who blasted the ball from 12 yards out, but it hit Josh Britt in the back and deflected out of bounds.
Out of the halftime break, it was all Richmond. Two more near misses, one by Alcocer, and the other by Jordan on a rebound in front of the net on a Luke Hawks shot off an indirect kick, kept the tempo and momentum going in the Raiders favor. Morales was rewarded in in the 57th when he won the ball on a volley from Alcocer, who played it into the offensive zone on a rush started by Evan Hudson at midfield. Morales’ shot came from the top of the 18-yard box and went into the upper part of the twine past Carillo for the evental game-winning tally.
Alcocer, who was playing his final regular season game as a Raider, caught fire in the 70th and 71st minutes, knocking in two goals in a 41-second span. His first goal was a laser from 30 yards out and was set up on a nifty pass from junior teammate Chandler Sinclair, who muscled his way past a Pirate defender on the far sideline to maintain possession. Less than a minute later, Alcocer collected a rebound on a Cole Deane shot to score the game’s final goal from inside the 18-yard box.
The shutout by Richmond was its sixth of the season, and fourth during the current seven-game winning streak. Senior goalkeeper Jackson Haley logged most of the minutes in Monday’s win, with sophomore backup Kaden Walker cleaning up the final minutes of play. Haley wasn’t very busy, but he made two diving saves, one on Edin Mejia and the other on Nate Cribb, to keep the Pirates scoreless.
“This is what I wanted to see tonight with the playoffs and a tie for second place on the line,” Larsen said. “The guys knew they had to win out (the last seven games) to give themselves a shot, and we were able to help ourselves by accomplishing one of those goals tonight.”
The top two teams from each conference will automatically make the NCHSAA 4A state playoffs, and Richmond will host Hoke County Tuesday at 6 p.m. in what Larsen called a “seeding game” tiebreaker. The winner will take the outright possession of second place in the SAC standings, while the losing team will have to wait and see how the rest of the field of 48 teams plays out to see if it gets in.
The Raiders and Bucks split the regular season series, each winning on the road. The Raiders won in dramatic penalty shot fashion, 3-1, on Oct. 8, which sparked their current winning streak.
