MARSHVILLE, N.C. – For the second straight week, the Richmond Senior High School Lady Raiders soccer team played three games in a five-day span. Last week, Richmond won just one contest against Jack Britt High School, but wrapped up this week with a sweep of its competition to win its third match in a row.
On the road in Union County at Forest Hills High School Thursday, the Lady Raiders (13-4) rolled to a 4-1 victory over the hosting Lady Yellow Jackets (5-8-1). Spreading the wealth, four different Richmond players found the back of the net in a game that head coach Bennie Howard said his team “dominated” once they rebounded from a “slow start.”
Improving to 7-2 overall this season on the road, and coming off a close 1-0 victory at Sandhills Athletic Conference opponent Lumberton High School Wednesday, the Lady Raiders are continuing to do what Howard expects them to do down the home stretch of the season: win. The non-conference win is Richmond’s eighth victory in the last 10 games, and it’s still battling to try and notch a second-place regular season finish in the SAC with Jack Britt High School (12-4, 10-2 SAC).
Howard’s squad didn’t “get off to a good start” as Forest Hill’s freshman standout striker Dalia Hernandez, who leads the Lady Yellow Jackets with 17 goals, netted the game’s first goal in the first eight minutes of competition. Trailing 1-0, it would be Richmond freshman Caroline Whitley who would answer the call just under 10 minutes later, as she cranked her first career varsity goal on cross inside the six-yard box from teammate Chloe Wiggins.
Sophomore Valery Standridge gave Richmond the lead and scored the game-winning goal, her third of the season, just before halftime. Up 2-1 at the hiatus, Richmond wouldn’t look back.
“I thought we were just going through the motions in the first half,” commented Howard, using the phrase often over the last two weeks. “It’s something we can’t do at this point in the season. I kind of chewed the team out at halftime, and it worked, because they came out and played really well in the final 40 minutes.”
According to Howard, it was in these final 40 minutes that his team “dominated” the Lady Yellow Jackets and kept its foot on the gas. He noted that Forest Hills “didn’t have a shot” in the second half, and its offense “may have crossed midfield a couple of times.”
The Lady Raiders offense, which is averaging 2.9 goals per match this season, tacked on two more goals. On the third goal, sophomore outside midfielder Emily Buie crossed a ball perfectly on the back post, which found junior Jayana Nicholson, who headed the ball in past Forest Hills’ keeper.
Leading by two goals, Howard began substituting his players in and out, and sophomore forward Carley Lambeth, who has battled illness the last two weeks, made up for lost time by notching the game’s final goal, her second of the 2018 campaign.
Buie and Wiggins were credited with one assist each.
Even with the victory, Howard explained that his team “suffered a couple of injuries.” Senior defender Kathleen Pittman was sidelined for part of the game when she rolled her ankle, and Standridge was also kicked in the calf, which reduced her time on the pitch. Junior striker Jessi Graham, who suffered a bruised thigh in Monday’s win over Hoke County High School, didn’t play for the second straight game.
“I told the girls that we needed to run the table the last little bit of the season,” Howard concluded. “We’re about halfway there and we have a big week ahead of us. We’ll roll into Seventy-First (High School) and have a big senior night game against Scotland (High School) on Wednesday. I’m hoping the girls who are injured will be back for that. It’s going to be a big couple of weeks for us in the conference tournament and we’ll see what we can do in the state playoffs.”
As Howard alluded to, Richmond will wrap up its regular season play next week. First, it’ll travel to last-place Seventy-First (0-14, 0-12 SAC) on Monday at 6 p.m., and conclude play against rival Scotland (2-10-2, 2-8-1 SAC) for senior night on Wednesday at 7 p.m. Richmond still trails Jack Britt by one game in the SAC standings, and is hoping that first-place Pinecrest High School can do it a favor and beat the Lady Buccaneers Monday to force a tie for second place.
