ROCKINGHAM — Richmond Senior’s varsity soccer team found redemption Wednesday with a 3-1 win over Overhills, following a same-score loss Monday to Hoke County.
Patrick Smith put the Raiders on the scoreboard first with a goal about 14 minutes into the game.
Later in the first half, the Jaguars’ Ivan Perez went down after taking a ball to the face and the Raiders’ Bryan Mendez-Mendoza scored a goal to take Richmond up 2-0.
Overhills secured its first and only goal of the game in the second half from Erik Galindo-Ortega and Richmond’s Kevin Diaz-Lopez would score to lock in the win.
“We were able to find our way back on the win column,” said head coach Chris Larsen. “The guys came out pretty strong in the first half, we were able to put two goals in the back of the net.”
Larsen said Patrick Smith’s early goal set the tone for the team.
“Like I told the guys, I think we got away with some sloppiness throughout the ball game, which I know is going to come back to bite us if we don’t clean that up moving forward,” Larsen continued. “We’ve seen everybody except for Pinecrest through conference, so we know what we’re going to have to do to come back and compete and hopefully get some revenge on those.”
Larsen said he’s hoping the momentum from the Wednesday win will carry into next week, when the Raiders travel to Pinecrest on Oct. 5. Richmond will also host Southern Wayne on Oct. 8.
Diaz-Lopez scored the varsity team’s only goal in the 3-1 loss Monday against Hoke.
The varsity team is now 9-6-2 for the season and 2-2 in the Mid-South 7A/8A Conference.
In the junior varsity game, Jake Smith found the back of the net within the first 30 seconds of the game, but the remaining 39 minutes of the first half stayed scoreless for both teams.
The Jaguars tied up the match 1-1 in the second half, but Alan Santiago and Jake Smith both scored for a 3-1 victory.
On Monday, the JV raiders defeated the Hoke County Bucks 3-1, with two goals from Jake Smith and one from Carson Beasley — despite being down eight players.
The JV team is 10-2-3 for the season and 3-1 in conference.
See photos from this week's games on the RO's Facebook page.
