ROCKINGHAM – Following Wednesday’s loss to Pinecrest High School, head coach Bennie Howard and the Lady Raiders soccer team know exactly what stands between them and a Sandhills Athletic Conference title this season.
In a game dominated by the Lady Patriots’ offense, Pinecrest (3-0-2, 2-0 SAC) mercy-ruled Richmond 9-0 with 9:54 still left in regulation, ending Richmond’s (3-1, 0-1 SAC) three-game winning streak to start the 2018 campaign, and marking the first time it had been mercry-ruled since 2016.
Entering the game, the Lady Raiders had outscored their previous three opponents 10-2, but a barrage of Pinecrest shots and smooth passing and ball control led to a scoreless night for Richmond.
“We knew coming into tonight that we were going to have to play lights out,” Howard said following the game. “We just got behind the eight ball and just continued to roll in the wrong direction.
“This is a wake-up call,” Howard continued. “Hat’s off to Pinecrest – they’re the top (team) in this area. We’ve got to work harder in practice, and we have to learn to understand that when we’re marking somebody up, we have to follow them the whole way.”
Howard’s last comment was in reference to his team’s inability to mark up and stick with several Lady Patriot players throughout the game, ultimately leading to several of the nine goals scored.
Pinecrest senior Molly Niewald led all scorers with two goals, both of which came in a 1:33 span in the second half to make the score 5-0.
The Lady Patriots got the scoring started early with two goals in the opening 7:40. Just 2:20 into the game, sophomore Lauren Landry made a cross into the box and found senior teammate Chloe Brown, who chipped it past a diving Allexis Swiney.
The sophomore goalkeeper held her ground, but a lethargic Richmond defense didn’t give her much help. All night, the Lady Patriots used bursts of speed to break the line of Richmond defenders, often times finding one-on-one rushes with Swiney.
Just a couple of minutes following the opening goal, the Lady Patriots were awarded a free kick when a Richmond defender drew a foul when she clipped the legs of a Pinecrest player, ultimately prohibiting her to play the ball, per an explanation by the head referee to the Richmond bench.
On that free kick, sophomore Kate Casey went top shelf and lasered a shot just under the crossbar from outside of the box along the left sideline. Very quickly, Pincrest led 2-0. And it wouldn’t look back.
The visiting team would add one more goal before the half, when sophomore Victoria Kays tapped a shot into a wide-open net after Swiney made a charge and contested a shot, which unfortunately deflected right to Kays.
Out of the halftime break, Howard made a change in formation from a 4-1-4-1 to a 4-4-2. The team was missing its starting center back Shelby Matheson due to illness, something Howard noted as potentially making a difference. The shift wasn’t very beneficial against the Lady Patriots, as they found the back of the net six times in 30:04 to put the mercy rule into effect.
Niewald notched both of her goals in the opening nine minutes of the second half, the first one a shot from the left side of the box that beat Swiney in the upper corner over her left shoulder. A hard rolling shot on an odd-man rush by Niewald just over 90 seconds later pushed the score to 5-0 with 30:58 to go in the game.
Howard decided to pull Swiney from the net following the fifth Pinecrest goal, giving her some rest in preparation for Thursday’s game. Freshman goalkeeper Kelly Hoffman got her first taste of varsity action as she closed out the remainder of the game.
Goals from Olivia Longfellow, Danielle Richmond, Natalie Sabiston and Ellie Gulovich in roughly 20 minutes following the goalkeeper switch ended the game.
Both Swiney and Hoffman made some impressive saves throughout the night, but Richmond’s lack of offense and possession didn’t help make a difference.
But having seen what the reigning conference champion Lady Patriots have to offer, Howard and company have something to build on for the rest of the season.
“It’s always a challenge to play (Pinecrest),” Howard said. “But we’ll get another shot at them in a couple of weeks, and we’ll see what happens.”
In junior varsity play, the Lady Raiders also suffered their first loss of the season, 4-1. Freshman Jakerra Covington scored the lone goal for Richmond.
“We didn’t come out on the end we wanted to tonight,” JV head coach Chris Larsen said. “But hopefully we will learn from playing a quality team and make adjustments to better ourselves in the next few games.”
Both Lady Raider teams are back in action Thursday as they’ll travel to non-conference opponent Pine Forest High School (Fayetteville, N.C.). The Lady Trojans varsity team is 3-1 on the year, so Richmond will have another tough contest to finish off a three-game week. Game times are 5:15 p.m. and 7 p.m.
