ROCKINGHAM — Nearly erasing a three-goal deficit on Monday, the Richmond Senior High School boys’ soccer team made the final five minutes interesting.
Starting their third week of play at home against non-conference Uwharrie Charter Academy, the Raiders came up just short 3-2.
Richmond allowed all three goals against in the opening 12 minutes of play. Scoring for the Eagles (2-0) were Jake Perreira, Israel Jaramillo and Jaydon DeNamur.
Head coach Chris Larsen said he thought the Raiders “were the better team,” but a slow start didn’t allow Richmond enough time to complete the comeback.
“Outside the first 15 minutes, we played pretty well,” Larsen said. “We came out a little bit flat and made a couple mistakes to allow easy goals early on. It’s hard to come back when you’re down three, but luckily we were able to at least make it an interesting end to the ball game.
“We had several shots hit off the post and a couple of empty nets where we couldn’t get enough power on the shots,” he continued. “It shows the guys have fight in them, but we didn’t play a full 80 minutes.”
Finding themselves down 3-0, a sliding save by sophomore goalkeeper Adrian Padron in the 26th minute started a momentum shift.
Richmond responded before the half with a goal from sophomore outside midfielder Landon Summerlin, his first varsity goal.
Uwharrie Charter’s Nick Hodges attempted to clear a ball deep in the box, which was kept in by junior midfielder Danny Jaimes.
Taking a touch, Jaimes slid the ball across the box to a charging Summerlin, who one-timed the goal with his right foot in the 32nd minute.
In the closing minutes of the first half, junior Noah Williams recorded two shots on frame and senior Jeremiah McLean put one on target that was stopped.
Keeping the momentum going in their favor, the Raiders shut out the Eagles in the final 40 minutes of play. Richmond peppered the goal with shot attempts by Williams, Jesus Castro, Jaimes and Junior Aguirre.
Junior striker James Eason registered his second goal of the season in the 76th minute, using quick feet and quick thinking to find the back of the net.
On a counter, Eason forced a turnover against Rowley Cordier on the right sideline. Moving up the field, he sent a low shot to the back post, sneaking it inside the side netting to catch the keeper off his line.
Eason had another chance to tie the game a minute later, banging a shot off the post from the right side.
In the closing minutes, sophomore Jeremiah Ritter put a ball on frame, and sophomore Noah Gil and and senior Jullian Cline both had a chance to knot the score on the rebound before it was cleared out.
Senior Luke McCormick headed a ball just over the crossbar on a free kick with 50 seconds left in regulation.
“Landon’s goal was something we worked on in practice and he was in the right place at the right time,” Larsen said. “He made a textbook shot low and hard into the corner. James had a heads up play to force the turnover and beat the keeper who was out of the net.
“This was a good learning experience for our guys, another good non-conference match,” he closed. “Hopefully it will get us refocused to open conference play at Southern Lee.”
The Raiders (1-2-1) hope to return to the win column when they open Sandhills Athletic Conference play at Southern Lee High School on Wednesday. The varsity only match will begin at 6 p.m.
Note: The Richmond junior varsity soccer team (0-1-1) didn’t play on Monday, and will host Central Academy on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
