Month: December 2019

This week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is women’s basketball forward Takia Nichols. Last week, Cedar Ridge defeated South Granville 44-29 for Coach William Dobbs’ first win as the head coach of the Lady Red Wolves. Nichols, a sophomore, is in her second year playing varsity women’s basketball. Nichols was an All-Big 8 Conference player in softball last season as Cedar Ridge won the Big 8 Championship for the second year in a row. Nichols helped Cedar Ridge to a 21-3 season as they reached the third round of the 3A State Playoffs. She hit .509 and led the team with eight home runs. She was tied for third on the squad with 36 RBIs. Even while playing basketball, Nichols is preparing for softball season, which is scheduled to start in March. Cedar Ridge travels to Northwood for its second Big 8 Conference game of the season on Tuesday night. You can hear the game with Tim Hackett starting live at 6 from Pittsboro.

This week’s Orange Panther of the Week is point guard Aaliyah Harris. The Orange women’s basketball team is 4-0. Harris has established her career-high twice this season at a time when the Panthers are trying to replace its top two scorers from last year. She scored 17 points in a 47-39 win over Southern Alamance in Graham on December 6. Last Thursday, Harris had 21 points, including 13 in the 4th quarter, as the Lady Panthers held off Carrboro 53-49 at Jaguars Gymnasium. She was pressed into scoring duties for Orange after Harris’ fellow guard, Mary Moss Wirt, was injured in the second quarter. Of the 17 points Orange scored in the 4th quarter against Carrboro, Harris scored 13 of them.Orange will start play in the Big 8 Conference on Tuesday night at East Chapel Hill starting at 7.

The Stanford Chargers wrestling team has won 19 consecutive Orange-Person Athletic Conference Championships.

Despite losing individual champions Dillon Heffernan, Sam Crawford and Jared Hutchins to graduation, the streak doesn’t show any signs of ending.

The Chargers venture into the week before winter break with a 3-0 record. On December 6, Stanford started its season with a 75-15 win over Culbreth. Last Wednesday, the Chargers turned back a challenge from Southern 82-24. Stanford thumped Northern Middle School 85-18 in Hillsborough.

Through the first three matches, nine Stanford wrestlers are undefeated. Wyatt Hendrick, competing at 83 pounds, replaces Jared Hutchins, who won the OPAC Championship last year. Also undefeated is Aiden Cain (98 pounds), Jared Hutchins (106), Josh Cowan (113), Andre Hill (138), Sascha VanPraag (152), Josh Merrill (160) and Vincent Joubert-Stenzel (170).

Hutchins already has an OPAC Championship under his belt at 83 pounds. Cowan was a runner-up in the OPAC at 106 pounds last year. Hill finished in 4th place in the OPAC at 126 pounds in 2019.

The Chargers’ final match before the holidays will be on Wednesday against Gravelly Hill in Efland.

Stanback Wrestling:

As mentioned in a previous update, the Stanback wrestling team defeated Smith Middle School 72-33 in Hillsborough on December 4. At 98 pounds, Pierce Prescod won via pinfall in the second period. Prescod won the OPAC Championship as a 7th grader.

8th grader Zoey Moreno recorded a pin in 14 seconds.

At 145 pounds, 8th grader Kaden Tatro, who also won an OPAC championship in 2019, started off the season with a pin in the second period. Tatro has moved up a weight class from last year.

At heavyweight, Kellan McMullen earned a pin in his first match. McMullen also won the OPAC championship last season as Stanback finished 2nd in the conference tournament last February.

Last week, Stanback defeated Culbreth 84-24

Stanback will host Northern Roxboro on Wednesday afternoon at 5 in its final match before Christmas break.

Boys Basketball:

Gravelly Hill opened its season by beating Northern Roxboro Middle School 47-37 in Efland last Tuesday. The Grizzles followed up by traveling to Chapel Hill and beating Phillips 39-18. Gravelly travels to Stanford on Tuesday.

These are all the scores we have thus far from middle school basketball. We’re looking to change that. Just as important as the scores of the games are the names of the players, because those are the local stars of the community.

If anyone can email hamlin37@hotmail.com with results from all boys and girls basketball games featuring Stanford, Gravelly Hill or Stanback, that’s what we’re aiming for with Middle School Review.

Of course, we’ll take any results from wrestling and ultimate frisbee, as well. We’ve reached out to all of the winter sports coaches, but if any parent can help us with this process of getting all games reported each week, it would be very helpful.

Again, email all results to hamlin37@hotmail.com.

The Orange Panthers improved to 5-1 with a 75-70 victory over the Carrboro Jaguars on Thursday. The Panthers got clutch foul shooting down the stretch from Jason Franklin and Machai Holt to earn the win. Holt had a critical 3-point play in the final minute to help Orange build an 9-point lead, which the Jaguars managed to cut down to a 1-point lead in less than 50 seconds. Orange will open Big 8 Conference play against East Chapel Hill on Tuesday night in Hillsborough starting at 7. Enjoy the highlights of the game from Shayne Thompson of Thompsonteamfilms.com.

Orange and Cedar Ridge will have momentum going into the Tiger Holiday Wrestling Classic next weekend.

The Panthers came away 5-0 in the Wayne Warrior Classic held at Eastern Wayne High School in Goldsboro on Saturday. Meanwhile in Franklin County, Cedar Ridge freshman Fernando Martinez and senior Daina Pritchard each had a solid weekend, going 5-0 as the Red Wolves competed in the Franklinton Rampage Duals at Franklinton High.

Cedar Ridge finished the day 3-2, but its match against Franklinton ended tied 42-42. The Rams won on criteria one, which was most first points scored–a category they edged the Red Wolves in by one point.

Orange improved to 13-1 overall after beating Southern Wayne 81-0, Smithfield-Selma 78-6, Cary 52-18, North Brunswick 54-26 and Northern Nash 76-10.

Orange senior heavyweight Juan Navarro finished 5-0 on the day with three pins to improve to 12-1 on the season. His pin of Northern Nash heavyweight Major Phillips in 46 seconds was the 56th win of his career.

At 106 pounds, Panther freshman Dillion Heffernan also went undefeated in five matches. Along with three forfeits, Heffernan pinned Cary’s Johny Ramos in 5:56 and North Brunswick’s Chase Phillips in 34 seconds. Heffernan, who won two Orange-Person Athletic Conference individual championships at Stanford Middle School, is 14-4 with seven pins thus far in his varsity career.

Overall, 24 wrestlers competed for Orange on the day. At 160 pounds, junior Korbin Nevius went 4-0, including a pin of Devin Bready of Northern Nash in 50 seconds. At 113 pounds, Joshua Dunn went 4-1 with two pins, while Kessel Summers finished 4-1, including pins of Dylan Ravine of North Brunswick in 3:03 and Julissa Rodriguez of Smithfield-Selma in seven seconds, the quickest pin of the day.

For Cedar Ridge, they defeated East Wake 72-12, polished off Louisburg 66-15, and handled Southeast Raleigh 66-18. In addition to the tight match against Franklinton, Dunn held off the Red Wolves 45-36.

Alex Davis of the Red Wolves also finished 5-0 on the day, in addition to Martinez and Pritchard. Davis won three matches via forfeit. Against East Wake, he pinned Dezzie Rhodes in 1:47. He also pinned Donovan Estes of Franklinton in 3:18 to give Cedar Ridge a 42-36 lead going into the final match.

Franklinton’s Joseph Murray claimed a pin at 145 to even the match and the Rams won on criteria.

Martinez pinned Jermaine Johnson of Southeast Raleigh in 3:45; pinned Shemar Davis of Louisburg in 3:44 and pinned Franklinton’s Nathan Hamrick in 1:22. He also had two forfeit victories.

Pritchard pinned Franklinton’s Javares White in 40 seconds. He pinned Fredy Gomez of Southeast Raleigh in 2:41, along with three forfeit wins.

At 160 pounds, Wyatt Robinson went 4-1, including a pinfall victory over East Wake’s Jesse Chase in 1:03. Robinson pinned Justin Williams of Southeast Raleigh in 2:10 and finished off Luis Reyes of Bunn in 29 seconds.

Cedar Ridge’s James Rosati-Brown, coming off a 5th place finish in the Jim King/Orange Invitational last weekend, went 4-1 with two pins, including a victory over Trent Wheeler of Franklinton in 1:42. Rosati-Brown also pinned Jaylin Robinson-Davis of Southeast Raleigh in 1:32.

The Tiger Holiday Classic, featuring teams from across the southeast, will start on Friday morning at Chapel Hill High School. Last season, Orange finished 8th, with Levi Anderson coming in 4th at 152 pounds. Anderson would go on to finish 2nd at 145 pounds in the 3A State Championships at the Greensboro Coliseum.