LAURINBURG - The Raider varsity soccer team capped off its three-match week Wednesday by collecting its third win and second shutout in three nights.
On the road at Sandhills Athletic Conference cellar dweller Scotland High School, Richmond kept the Fighting Scots off the board en route to a 5-0 victory. It was the Raiders’ fourth-straight win, all of which have come against SAC opponents. Earlier this week, Richmond shutout Seventy-First High School 9-0 on Monday, before turning around and beating the Falcons again on Tuesday, 4-2.
The win against Scotland (3-11, 1-8 SAC) saw four different Raiders score, as three of them had found the net in the previous two games. In that span, Richmond is outscoring its opponents 18-2. Junior Noah Jordan scored a match-high two goals, one in each half, while Luke Hawks and Chandler Sinclair joined the scoring parade in the first half, and Steven Morales capped things off with his second goal in three nights in the closing minutes of regulation.
“I don’t think we played the best we could have, but we weren’t as sluggish like we were against Seventy-First on Tuesday,” first-year head coach Chris Larsen said after the game. “Even though we weren’t firing on all cylinders, we were able to score three goals in the first half, which was a good start for us.”
At the 18-minute mark, Jordan scored his first goal of the night on an assist from senior teammate Carlos Alcocer. Jordan took a pass through traffic from Alcocer, made a touch, and launched it on frame to beat the keeper. His two goals on the night gave Jordan four in the last three games, as he score a match-high two goals in Monday’s win.
Not long after Jordan’s eventual game-winner, Hawks collected the ball in middle of the field and blasted a rocket into the net. The third and final goal of the opening 40 minutes of play came from Sinclair when he gathered a rebound on a Blaise Steadman shot. Steadman’s initial shot went to the right side of the net and was batted down, but Sinclair was there to follow up and make it 3-0 with just over five minutes to go in the half.
“I told the guys at half that we hadn’t been moving the ball as much as I’d like to see,” Larsen explained. “I wanted them to play more as a cohesive unit because we’d lose the ball trying to get through guys instead of making the easy pass.
“In the second half, we did better job of knocking the ball and playing together,” he added. “Like I’ve tried to do all week, I played everyone in the second half, and they did a good job.”
Much of the second half was scoreless until Jordan scored his second goal with seven minutes remaining. The left-footed midfielder drew up a shot from the left side of the field and “ripped an open shot” that forced the keeper to dive. Larsen described it as a “tough shot to get to,” as the ball banged off the left post and redirected itself into the net.
Morales ended the scoring barrage a couple of minutes later when he collected a bouncing ball near the top of the 18-yard box and booted it into the left side of the goal. He also scored the final goal in Monday’s mercy-rule win.
“It looks like we’re starting to get some different guys scoring which is good at this point in the season,” Larsen concluded. “Next week we have Lumberton High School twice and Scotland again to close out the season, so I hope to carry the momentum from three wins in three days into next week.”
The Raiders (9-8, 7-4 SAC) are now all alone in third place in the standings, one game ahead of Jack Britt High School. Entering the night, there was a strong chance that they could finished tied in second place with Hoke County, but the Bucks defeated SAC leader Pinecrest High School 2-1 in overtime Wednesday, all but spoiling Richmond’s chances, although there’s still an outside possibility.
Larsen anticipates his team will still make the NCHSAA 4A playoffs if the Raiders can win out the regular season in their last three games. That challenge begins Wednesday, Oct. 24, at fifth-place Lumberton (6-9-1, 3-5 SAC) at 7 p.m.
