FAYETTEVILLE - The total number of goals the Richmond Senior High School varsity soccer team scored in its match Tuesday wasn’t half of the nine it notched on Monday, but it was more than enough to pick up its third-straight win.
The Raiders (8-8, 6-4 SAC) moved back to the .500 mark on the season with a 4-2 win on the road at Sandhills Athletic Conference opponent Seventy-First High School. The night before, the Raiders unleashed for a season-high nine goals, shutting out the seventh-place Falcons (5-11, 2-9 SAC) 9-0 in mercy-rule fashion. The two wins mark Richmond’s best scoring margin over a two-game span this season, outdoing Seventy-First 13-2.
First-year head coach Chris Larsen has made the team’s mantra down the final stretch of the regular season to be that his players need to “bring their A game every night and that they control their own destiny.” And while Tuesday’s win wasn’t as lavish as Monday’s, a win is a win and it’s another step closer to the playoffs.
“We came out a little sluggish after a big win last night,” Larsen noted. “The guys realized that other teams don’t pass out wins, and that we’ve got to play to earn them. We had plenty of opportunities to score a lot of goals tonight, but we weren’t able to connect and put the ball in the net as much as we would have liked.”
It was Anthony Coleman’s team that scored first, as the Falcons took advantage of a Richmond foul inside the box in the first 15 minutes of the match. The penalty kick opportunity rang true for the Falcons, and they took a 1-0 lead. But Larsen said the hiccup was enough to “wake us up on offense, and lit a fire” under his team.
The Raiders would score three unanswered goals to close out the first half, with all three goals scored by seniors. Nolan Allen would knot the game at one goal apiece in the 20th minute on what Larsen called a “pure hustle play,” taking the ball on a rebound opportunity. He put his shot on net and watched as it hit off the top of the crossbar from 10 yards out and ricochet behind goalkeeper Komla Akogo.
To close out the opening 40 minutes of play, Carlos Alcocer and Alexis Gonzalez, both of whom had a goal in Monday’s win, would find the twine from close range. Larsen explained that both goals were “typical run of the mill” scores from inside the box, as Alcocer (26th minute) and Gonzalez (32nd minute) each “collected the ball and made a touch” before scoring. Leading 3-1, the Raiders entered halftime up two and never looked back.
Out of the break, each team scored one goal in the second half. Junior Lee Hayden was rewarded early on with his second goal of the season, as he launched an uncontested shot from 35 yards out that scooted underneath an unsuspecting Akogo. The Falcons would again strike scoring gold on a penalty kick in the final handful of minutes of the match, as the ball hit the crossbar and spun backward into the net.
“I think a lot of tonight was the guys just going through the motions, and that one early goal by Seventy-First showed them they needed to play hard,” Larsen noted. “Knowing we have another conference game on Wednesday, I made sure I got guys playing time who normally don’t play as much. I wanted to help build their confidence and spread the love.”
Richmond has four games left in the regular season before the NCHSAA 4A playoffs start. The SAC is bypassing the conference tournament this season because of the hurricanes, so if the Raiders want to get a solid seeding, they need to win out the rest of the way.
“With the way the conference looks now, which is the way I thought it would, if we win out, we should be in a clear third-place finish,” Larsen concluded. “I’m expecting the standings to stay the same, but I’d like to be a higher spot.
“But taking third place when you look at the competition we played this season should be good enough to make the state playoffs.”
Currently, Pinecest High School (16-1, 12-0 SAC) leads the SAC, and Hoke County High School is in second place with a 12-4, 8-3 SAC record. With the three straight wins, and Jack Britt High School (9-7, 6-5 SAC) falling to Pinecrest on Monday, the Raiders leapfrogged the Bucs and slid into third place. As explained by Larsen, if the Raiders win out, and Hoke County loses to Pinecrest, his team could finish in a tie with the Bucks for second place. A coin toss would then decide the second and third place finishers.
Richmond will be on the road Wednesday to cap off a three-game week at last-place Scotland High School (3-10, 1-7 SAC). The game is slated for 7 p.m.
