ROCKINGHAM —Richmond Senior junior varsity soccer player Cole Young and coach Bennie Howard celebrated their birthdays Monday with 2-0 win over Montgomery Central.
The Raiders kept the Timberwolves on the defensive, keeping the ball on Montgomery Central’s side of the field for a majority of the first half.
Jude Lantz put Richmond on the scoreboard with an assist from Kingston Gill.
Following the half-time pep talk from the coaches, the Raiders kept the Timberwolves scoreless in the second half and a goal from Young put Richmond up 2-0.
The JV soccer team improves to 5-1. Aside from the 4-0 defeat by Porter Ridge in the second game of the season, Richmond has prevented its opponents from scoring: 2-0 against Central Academy of Technology and Arts; 9-0 against Cape Fear; 3-0 against Lumberton; and 5-0 against Scotland.
Cole Lambeth battles against Montgomery Central goalie Pablo Alvarez to score Richmond's second goal to tie up the game 2-2.
William R. Toler - Richmond Observer
The Raiders had a tougher time in the varsity match-up, with Yahir Rogel scoring the first goal for the Timberwolves within the first 20 minutes of the game. That was followed just a few minutes later with another by Jaydence Eddins.
Montgomery Central led 2-0 at halftime, and well into the second half.
There were less than 15 minutes to play in the second half when Richmond’s Martin Lopez scored a goal off a kick by Angel Huerta.
The Timberwolves nearly scored a third goal with the clock at 6:35, but the ball glanced off the goal.
Three minutes later, Cole Lambeth evened up the score at 2-2 with a goal of his own and Richmond held off Montgomery Central to end the game with a tie, bringing the varsity team’s record to 3-3-1 for the season.
This was the Raiders’ first game since besting rival Scotland 3-0 last Monday. Two other games were canceled due to weather-related rescheduling, but the team was able to practice the rest of the week.
“When you have that long of a layoff, it’s hard to kinda get back in game shape … the guys aren’t accustomed, at this point of the year, of having seven days off … between games,” coach Chris Larsen said. “I expected us to come out a little slow, I just didn’t know it was going to take us 70 minutes to put it in high gear and figure it out.”
Larsen said his team “dug deep” to find “that little bit of extra power” in the last 20 minutes to tie up the game. He’s optimistic the team will carry that momentum into Wednesday’s home game against Forest Hills.
“Hopefully we can come out guns a’blazin’ and find that back of the net a little bit earlier.”
See more photos from both games at the RO's Facebook page.
