SOUTHERN PINES - In what has been the week of Richmond Senior High School on the road at Pinecrest High School, with the Richmond soccer and volleyball programs squaring off against the Patriots, Wednesday’s soccer match was another nail biter.
After opening Sandhills Athletic Conference play Monday at Purnell Swett High School with an 8-0 win over the Rams, head coach Chris Larsen’s team geared up for what it knew would be a tough contest against the reigning SAC champion Patriots.
Despite Richmond grinding it out to the final whistle, the Raiders dropped their first conference match of the year 3-1 to Pinecrest. Senior Alexis Gonzalez notched the visiting team’s only goal of the night, an athletic header over the hands of Pinecrest goalkeeper Hunter Johnson in the 24th minute.
The Patriots would score one goal in the first half (15th minute), and two in the second half (47th and 71st minutes), all by different players.
Richmond hasn’t defeated the Patriots since Oct. 17, 2016, dropping the last four meetings by a combined 10 goals. But with their performance Wednesday, the Raiders seemed to be trending in the right direction to compete for an SAC title this season.
“I told the guys at practice yesterday that regardless if we scored first or second, it was going to be one of those games that we were going to be in the whole time,” Larsen said. “It fell just like that -- they scored first, and we a couple of opportunities right after. Even though we didn’t score, the guys kept their heads high.
“Alexis had the header right before the end of the half, which was good momentum for us,” he continued. “(Pinecrest) scored a nice second goal to start the second half, but even then being down 2-1, we pushed forward and stuck to our game plan.”
In what turned out to be a physical game on both sides of the ball, it was senior goalkeeper Jackson Haley who kept the Raiders (2-3, 1-1 SAC) within striking distance, as he made 14 saves on the night. In the match’s opening 10 minutes, Haley faced a barrage of Patriot shots, but stood tall and made several nice saves.
Just 2:30 seconds after the opening whistle, Jackson made a diving save on a Noah Hernandez one-on-one shot in the box, and played deja vu two minutes later against the junior midfielder again. With Pinecrest maintaining possession deep in Richmond’s end of the field for a majority of the first half, Haley made another great save, this one a charging slide on Nick Vences just moments after his two saves on Hernandez.
Leading up to the first goal of the night by Pinecrest (4-1, 2-0 SAC), Haley continued to deny shots of frame. In a 30-second span still in the first 10 minutes, Haley punched away a Braydon Peery free kick from 30 yards out, and followed up by deflecting another shot and getting some help in the same sequence from the crossbar.
Pinecrest’s Johnny Grgurevic would finally get one past Haley, as he played a through ball in the 15th minute. Thanks to the outlet pass, Grgurevic was awarded a one-on-one opportunity with Haley, and despite the keeper coming out and contesting the angle, the sophomore forward managed to boot a grounder into the twine.
The Raiders’ first true offensive opportunity came with just over 23 minutes left in the first half as junior Noah Jordan collected a turnover deep in Pinecrest’s end, but his shot nailed Johnson right in his hands. Senior Evyn Brower, who leads the team with three goals on the season, made a charge of this own a couple minutes later, but his shot on frame was also stopped.
In the ensuing minutes after Jordan’s shot, key defensive plays by senior Evan Hudson and junior Drew Davis stunted two Patriot attacks. On a corner kick from Haley’s left, Gray Smith headed the ball along the far post, getting it past the keeper, but Hudson stopped the ball with his chest and booted it out of the danger zone.
Moments later, Davis made a nice sliding play on a Vences knock from inside the box.
Gonzalez, who is back with the team after missing his junior season, would get Richmond’s players off the bench in celebration with just over 17 minutes to go in the opening half. After Hudson brought the ball up and made a play on net, Gonzalez placed himself under a bouncing ball before deflecting it with his head into the upper part of the net. Tied at one, the Raiders had new life.
Alexis Gonzalez (10) celebrates after his first-half goal in Wednesday’s match.
Before the end of the opening 40 minutes, Haley would make a couple of more saves, including another sliding snag, this time on Judas Villegas from inside the box. Davis aided his keeper with another big-time block deep in his own end. Senior Carlos Alcocer nearly gave Richmond the lead when he took a Hudson pass into the box, but Johnson mimicked Haley’s moves, and was able to swipe the ball away before Alcocer could get his shot off.
Prior to going into the half tied at one, Peery was awarded a yellow card for making hard contact with Jordan around midfield. He had received a warning in the game’s opening minutes after he wrapped up senior Nolan Allen and held him from getting to the ball.
The second half wasn’t nearly as contested as the first, as Richmond managed to maintain possession more frequently and limited Pinecrest’s rushes. But Patriot junior Cole Macauley struck his only goal of the night in the 47th minute when he worked around a pair of defenders and Haley to send a hard grounder into the net to make it 2-1 Pinecrest.
The Raiders would get four more solid chances to tie the game for the second time, as Jordan had two attempts in a short span that just missed. His first shot was a leaping kick on a Brower throw-in, and he lasered a missile from 30 yards out a couple of minutes later that nearly skimmed the crossbar.
Moments after Jordan’s kick, Brower made a rush of his own before his shot went wide after being struck by a Pinecrest defender. Gonzalez nearly scored his second goal of the night when he took a pass from Alcocer from 20 yards out.
Haley’s final two stands came when he made a charging save on Vences, stood up, and made another stellar grab on a Vences putback with 13 minutes to go in regulation. In the game’s final two minutes, Villegas made a run on the net, sliding with his cleats up and catching Haley above the neck, securing a yellow card.
Peery scored the game’s final goal in the 71st minute when he collected a rare Haley rebound and poked it into a wide open net. Alcocer made one last run at the net in the 78th minute, as he took a Joey Nicholson pass down the left sideline and sent the ball across an open goalmouth.
Though his team didn’t get the win, Larsen was proud of several of his players for stepping up and fulfilling leadership roles on the pitch in the high-stakes contest.
“Evan (Hudson) knows how to hold it down in the back and set the tempo for us, and that’s why he was an all-conference player last year,” Larsen noted. “Noah has been doing a good job, and though he hasn’t scored any goals for us, he’s always in the mix.
“Another guy is Evyn Brower,” he added. “It doesn’t show in the score book, but he made some runs and played some balls that gave us some opportunities. And Jackson has been playing lights out this year -- he came out of the box and won a lot of balls tonight. It’s instinct for him.”
To wrap up their second consecutive three-match week, the Raiders will return home Thursday and host a tough Lee County High School squad in a non-conference matchup. The Yellow Jackets are 5-1 on the season, and are coming off a final four appearance in the 2017 NCHSAA 3A state playoffs.
“It’s going to be another battle -- they are a quality team,” Larsen concluded. “Every game is important and we want to try to win every game. We need to try and finish in the top two spots in our conference.”
Thursday’s match is set to start around 7 p.m. following the junior varsity game.
Note: The Richmond junior varsity team lost 2-1 to Pinecrest Wednesday. Freshman Alex Medina scored the only goal for the Raiders, which tied the match at one in the first half.
