Month: September 2021

It’s already that time.

The dog days of October are here. Games that will decide Central Carolina Conference champions will start as soon as tonight when Cedar Ridge volleyball faces Northwood at Red Wolves Gymnasium. The Red Wolves swept the Chargers on September 2 in Pittsboro, Northwood’s only league loss. If Cedar Ridge wins tonight, they essentially have a three game lead (they’ll control the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Chargers, along with a two-game lead In the standings) with four conference games remaining.

Last week, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association released its first round of RPI rankings for volleyball, which revealed positive news for both Hillsborough volleyball teams. Cedar Ridge was ranked #1 in the 3A East region, even after its loss to D.H. Conley (which is a 4A team) on Monday. The Red Wolves were the highest among five Central Carolina teams ranked in the top 15 for the region. Person was #3, Northwood #4, Orange was #7 and Eastern Alamance #15.

J.H. Rose was #2.

One wrinkle that stood out from an Orange perspective was the Lady Panthers have played possible the toughest schedule of any team in the region. The winning percentage for Orange’s opponents was .715, the only scored in the region with a figure in the 70% range. Cedar Ridge, which has already played the defending 3A State Champions twice, was second in the region at .691.

Volleyball isn’t the only sport where conference championships are being contested, of course. In women’s tennis, Cedar Ridge pulled off its biggest win of the season on Monday night, beating Northwood 5-4 at Red Wolves Tennis Courts. The Chargers entered the match 5-0 in the CCC. Orange is jostling with the Chargers and Williams for a spot in the 3A Dual Team Playoffs, which will start next month.

Oh, and the Cedar Ridge men’s soccer team ended last week on a three-game winning streak, its longest in three years.

With that in mind, here are this week’s Magnificent Seven, which honor the best individual performances over the past week.

Darius Corbett: The Orange striker for the men’s soccer team had a hat trick against Southern Durham on Friday night. It was Corbett’s second hat trick of the season. On August 28, he had three goals against Henderson Collegiate at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary. Corbett leads Orange with seven goals this season.

Caitlin Carden: In wins over Eastern Alamance and Western Alamance, Carden collectively had 60 assists. In Orange’s 3-0 win over the Warriors, Carden had a double-double with 27 assists and ten digs as the Lady Panthers improved to 6-4, 3-3 in the CCC.

Erin Sollars: There’s no such thing as a short Orange-Western Alamance tennis match. Earlier this month, the Lady Panthers and the Warriors played a dual match that lasted well into the night. Last Thursday’s match in Hillsborough was no different, with Orange pulling out a 6-3 win. Two of the five singles matches went to 10-point, 3rd set tiebreakers. Sophomore Erin Sollars won her match at #3 singles 6-0, 6-1. Then in doubles, Sollars teamed with senior Jera Hargrove to win at #2 doubles 8-1 and wrap up the Orange win.

Chris Munoz: A strong week for Cedar Ridge men’s soccer continued with a 2-0 win over Eastern Alamance and a 8-1 victory over Person. Munox scored the game-winning goal against the Eagles. Against the Rockets, he scored two goals as the Red Wolves improved to 4-7, 3-1 in the CCC.

Adeline Cummings: Another strong Cedar Ridge women’s tennis freshmen. Cummings won her #6 singles match against Durham School of the Arts on Friday. Last Wednesday, Cedar Ridge defeated Person 6-3. Cummings started at #2 singles and captured her match 6-0, 6-2. Cummings is 4-3 in singles matches this year.

Cameron Lloyd: The Cedar Ridge junior outside hitter continues to make her case for Big 8 Volleyball Player of the Year. After the Red Wolves suffered its first loss of the season against Conley, the Red Wolves rebounded by making quick work of East Chapel Hill 3-0 on Tuesday in Hillsborough. Lloyd tied her season-high with 19 kills. She also had 18 digs. The Red Wolves impressively put away Person in Roxboro on Thursday to complete a season-sweep of the Rockets.

Olivia Aitkin: Olivia is a three-sport athlete at Cedar Ridge. She is best known for playing centerfield for the softball team, but she has also qualified for the Big 8 Conference swimming championships. She is also a golfer. Last week, Aitken finished in the top 10 during a Central Carolina Conference meet at the Valley Golf Course in Burlington. It was her second top-10 finish of the year. On top of that, Aitkin also committed to play softball at Amherst College in Amherts, MA.

On Thursday night, the Cedar Ridge men’s soccer team won its third straight game, routing Person 8-1 at Red Wolves Stadium. Freshman Edwin Hernandez-Huerta and junior Issac Anderson each scored two goals as the Red Wolves improved to 4-7. They moved up to 2nd place in the Central Carolina Conference with a 3-1 record. This is the Red Wolves’ longest winning streak since 2018, when they defeated Hunt, Bartlett Yancey and Southern Alamance. Cedar Ridge is fighting to return to the 3A State Playoffs for the first time since 2016, when they finished 2nd in the Big 8 Conference. Hernandez-Huerta has five goals thus far in his freshman season. Anderson, who had a gorgeous header off a corner in the final ten minutes for the final goal against the Rockets, had scored three goals this season for the Red Wolves. Cedar Ridge will look to continue the fight for the postseason when they travel to Williams on Monday night. The Bulldogs were the 3A State Champions in 2019. Cedar Ridge will travel to Person on Monday, October 4.

Trent Gill: The N.C. State football team grabbed the headlines across the college football world with a thrilling 27-21 win over #9 Clemson in double overtime in front of 56,919 at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh on Saturday night. It was State’s first win over a top-10 team since 2012. Gill, a former Cedar Ridge linebacker, placekicker and punter, delivered the opening kickoff of the game. All three of Gill’s kickoffs went for touchbacks. The Wolfpack punted six times. Each time, Gill did the honors and had an impressive average of 51 yards per punt. His longest was 57 yards. Four of his six punts traveled over 50 yards. Gill was also the holder on field goals and extra points. On Sunday, N.C. State entered the Associated Press top 25 rankings for the first time this year at #24. The Wolfpack will play its final non conference game against Louisiana Tech on Saturday in Raleigh.

Adam Chnupa: The Elon Phoenix football team had yet another heartbreaking loss on Saturday. This time, William & Mary defeated Elon 34-31 at Rhodes Stadium in Elon. Chnupa, who was Gill’s teammate at Cedar Ridge, played on special teams for the Phoenix. It was Elon’s Colonial Athletic Association opener. So far this young season, the Phoenix’s two loses to FCS opponents have come by a combined margin of five points. Elon is 1-3 and will travel to Richmond on Saturday.

Bryse Wilson: After winning his first game for the Pittsburgh Pirates last season, Wilson was played on the 10-day Injured List, ending his season. He was removed from the game against the Miami Marlins after 68 pitches because of a strained left hamstring. Wilson was traded by the Atlanta Braves to Pittsburgh at the trade deadline. In eight games, Wilson threw 40.1 innings for Pittsburgh. He has a 4.91 ERA. Wilson is expected to start rehabilitation immediately with only one week remaining in the regular season.

Kayla Hodges: Hodges scored another goal for the Elon women’s soccer team in its Colonial Athletic Association opener. On Sunday afternoon, Hodges collected a loose ball in the middle of the penalty area and tucked it into the lower left corner of the net to tie the game against UNC Wilmington in the 84th minute. The Seahawks would get the game winner in the 89th minute from Audrey Harding to prevail 2-1 at UNCW Soccer Stadium. Hodges now has three goals this season. She played all 90 minutes. Elon is 5-4, 0-1 in the CAA and will host Delaware next Sunday at Rudd Field.

Brittany Daley: The Division III Greensboro College women’s soccer team defeated Pfeiffer 1-0 at N.E. Lefko Field in Misenhemier on Saturday. It was the Pride’s USA South Athletic Conference opener. Daley started at centerback and played her routine 90 minutes. Last Sunday, Greensboro played a scoreless tie against Piedmont College at Pride Field. This time, Daley played 110 minutes, including extra time. Greensboro improved to 3-4-1 overall, 1-0 in the USA South.

Jordan Rogers: The Division III William Peace women’s soccer team played to a scoreless tie against Mary Baldwin at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary on Saturday. Rogers started as a wingback and played all 90 minutes. Also last week, despite being undefeated in three consecutive games, the Pacers named Ozzy Peralta as its interim head coach, replacing Reid Clewis, who had been on the job since December 2017.

Bailey Lucas: The Division III Meredith volleyball team split a quad match at Southern Virginia University in Buena Vista, VA on Saturday. The Avenging Angels swept Mary Baldwin 3-0 on scores of 26-24, 25-16 and 25-13 at Knight Arena. Later in the day, Southern Virginia defeated Meredith 3-1 on scores of 18-25, 25-21, 25-21, and 25-12.

Lucas, after missing three matches, made her return to the starting lineup against the Fighting Squirrels. Lucas had 16 assists, three aces and four digs.

Against the Knights, Lucas started. She finished with one kill, 12 assists, one ace and eight digs. Meredith is 8-5, 2-1 in the USA South Athletic Conference.

This week’s Orange Panther of the Week is sophomore libero Sadye Porter. Joining Sadye in this interview is junior Erin Jordan-Cornell, who was awarded a retro Orange Panther of the Week from last February during basketball season. On September 1, Porter had 48 digs in a 3-1 win over Southern Alamance in Graham. The following night in Orange’s Central Carolina Conference opener, Porter had 12 digs in a sweep of Williams in Hillsborough. Since then, Porter has made big plays for Orange in wins over Western Alamance and Eastern Alamance. On Thursday, Porter finished with 16 digs, two assists and 14 serves received in a 3-0 sweep of Western Alamance. She leads the team with 148 digs. On Tuesday, Orange defeated Eastern Alamance. It was the first game back for Erin Jordan-Cornell after suffering an injury last spring. Jordan-Cornell’s presence in the middle will help the Lady Panthers during the second half of the season. There will be stiff competition next week. Orange faces 2019 3A State Champion Chapel Hill on Monday. They will travel to Burlington to face Williams on Tuesday, then host Central Carolina Conference leader and crosstown rival Cedar Ridge on Thursday in what could be an emotional atmosphere on Thursday night.

There was a protest outside Orange High’s school gates because of the Orange County School Board mandate that limited fans at athletic events.

There was an Orange High band that performed in front of a fraction of a crowd that would ordinary gather at Auman Stadium for the first Friday in autumn.

There was a Williams running back who entered the night without a touchdown this season. He wound up scoring four.

But there was no offense from Orange, again, and it has left them on the brink of its fourth straight non-winning season.

Williams running back Alijah Richmond rushed for 109 yards and four touchdowns as Williams defeated Orange 28-0 on Friday night in Hillsborough. Richmond, who had not scored a touchdown in the Bulldogs’ opening five games, eclipsed his previous season-high of 108 yards, which came against Eastern Randolph on September 10.

The Panthers could only muster 89 yards total offense and crossed the 50-yard line just twice against the sizable Bulldogs. It was the fourth time in six games that Orange (1-5, 0-2 in the Central Carolina Conference) has been held under 150 yards total offense.

Under quarterback Jared Weaver, Orange threw the ball more in an effort to mitigate Williams’ size advantage up front. Weaver had a season-high six completions for 44 yards.

“Same old story, different team,” said Orange coach Van Smith. “We knew coming in they were extremely good against the run. They have been all year. So it knew it was going to be a battle. They had a lot of weapons on offense on different areas of the field. I thought we had a pretty good dad gum game plan that put us in the best position to win the game.”

Orange never got into the Williams red zone. The closest they came was on the first drive of the second half, the Panthers only sustained series all night. It opened with Weaver running for nine yards. After Williams’ was called for pass interference on 3rd-and-10, running back Omarion Lewis ran for eleven yards, the last of Orange’s five first downs. After Lewis gained two yards on 3rd-and-3 at the Williams 29-yard line, the Panthers went for it on 4th-and-1, but their run was stuffed by Bulldogs’ defensive linemen Sam Rhodes and Santiago Herrera.

The Panthers’ offense didn’t have a pulse the rest of the game.

Williams (4-2, 2-0), under first-year head coach Patrick Stokes, is two wins away from its first winning season since 2013.

On the Bulldogs’ second drive, quarterback Jaelean Brown had a 45-yard run to the Orange 15-yard line. Richmond battered away at the Panther defense until he scored his first touchdown on a two-yard push with 5:15 remaining the first quarter.

Meanwhile, Orange’s offense didn’t pick up its initial first down until a fake punt early in the second quarter. Punter Darius Satterfield found Elijah Danley, who made a diving catch to move the chains by perhaps two inches, if that. After Weaver hit running back Nathan Sorrells for a 10-yard gain, the drive stalled.

Satterfield punted the ball to the Williams 2-yard line. Williams quickly removed itself from that field position when Brown hit wide receiver Isaiah Ramsey on a simple swing pass. Ramsey rocketed up the field and Orange’s Steven Bellamy was the only person who stopped him from scoring. Three plays later, Richmond scored on a 3-yard run to end a 98-yard drive that only took four plays.

Bellamy also recovered a fumble in the second quarter to start another drive that went nowhere.

Richmond scored on a two-yard run in the third quarter and on a 29-yard screen pass from Brown in the fourth.

Orange enters its off-week. They will host Person for Homecoming, in whatever form that will be, on October 8.

“These kids better love football,” Smith said. “We’ve always said that football isn’t real fun. Winning is fun. This is the time right now where you dang well better love it. That’s been a problem for us all year. Kids missing practice. As a result, they miss time during the game. It’s just a recurring problem. They better figure out real quick how to get to practice every day. We can’t get better if we’re not here.”

It was the first of two games between Orange and Williams this year. Last night’s game counted in the Central Carolina Conference standings. Their meeting on October 22 in Burlington, which replaced the Panthers’ date against Cedar Ridge, will be a non conference game.

WILLIAMS 28, ORANGE 0

WIL-7 7 7 7-28

ORA-0 0 0 0-0

WIL-Alijah Richmond 2 run (Brick Bowen kikc0
WIL-Richmond 8 run (Bowen kick)

WIL-Richmond 2 run (Bowen kick)

WIL-Richmond 29 pass from Jaelean Brown (Bowen kick)

RUSHING-WILLIAMS 32-189 3 TD (Richmond 16-109 3 TD, Brown 8-55, Kylei Richmond 3-26, Dan Mahan 1-6, Nasir Price 1-2, Carmelo Neal 1-1, team 1-(-3), Dejuan Shaffer 1-(-7))

ORANGE- (Omarion Lewis 12-32, Nathan Sorrells 3-6, Jackson Wood 3-0, Jared Weaver 7-(-1), Ronald Cooper 2-(-4).

PASSING: WILLIAMS (Brown 6-10 132 TD)

ORANGE: 7-17 66 INT (Weaver 6-16 44 INT, Darius Satterfield 1-1 12)

RECEIVING: WILLIAMS (Richmond 2-34 TD, Izayah Ramsey 1-73, Will Rhodes 1-21, Price 1-5, Jake Marquis 1-(-1)

ORANGE (Sorrells 4-28, Elijah Danley 2-25, Wynston Brown 1-3)

This week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is senior goalkeeper Benjamin Weaver. Last week, Weaver allowed only one goal as the Red Wolves defeated Orange 4-1 in the Hillsborough Derby at Red Wolves Stadium. The Red Wolves are undefeated in its last four games against Orange, with three of those games wins. Weaver made a key save late in the second half that kept the match in Cedar Ridge’s favor at 2-1. It has been a whirlwind 2021 for Weaver. He moved to Hillsborough over the summer with his family from Scranton, Pennsylvania. He arrived at Cedar Ridge just as Chauncey Brummell was named the new Red Wolves men’s soccer coach. On Monday night, Cedar Ridge continued its momentum with a 2-0 win over Eastern Alamance in Mebane. Weaver earned his second clean sheet of the season. The Red Wolves will look to extend its winning streak to three straight when they face Person on Thursday night at Red Wolves Stadium in Hillsborough.

If you ever find yourself watching an Orange volleyball match, which is harder than it should be right now, chances are you’ll get your money’s worth.

Certainly that was the case on Wednesday night when Orange and Southern Alamance went to a five-set battle where the Patriots earned a 3-2 win to square the regular season series. But it was the Lady Panthers’ match for the taking.

Orange led 11-8 in the fifth and decisive set after Caitlin Carden knocked down a kill attempt by Southern’s Kelci Brooks. After a timeout, the Patriots reeled off five straight points and seven of the last eight to win 15-12. Rylee Humble scored a kill to set up set point, which was notched by Brooks. The Patriots (12-4) have won seven of its last eight matches.

Orange (5-4), who defeated the Patriots in four sets on September 1 in Graham, had its chances. In the opening set, the Lady Panthers had two sets points after a kill by junior Allie Wilkerson. But Caitlyn Russell spiked home a kill to tie the match at 25-25. Brooks scored the final point of the frame as the Patriots won 27-25.

In the final four sets, Orange sophomore Ella Wimsatt had 27 digs.

Orange didn’t trail in the second set, which started with an ace from Carden. Wimsatt had six kills in the set, while Carden had 18 assists. Wilkerson ended the set with an unassisted kill as Orange won 25-22.

Southern Alamance jumped out to a 7-1 lead in the third set. The closest Orange could ever get was 18-16. Freshman Ava Duggins got a kill to make it 24-20 and it ended after a Panther return on set point went long.

The Lady Panthers fell behind 9-2 in the fourth set, but roared back to win it 25-22. Wimsatt had three kills during a 10-2 Orange run, which evened the set 10-10. Orange took a 19-16 lead off consecutive aces by Carden. Wimsatt forced a fifth set after a spike set up by Carden.

On Tuesday night, Orange swept Eastern Alamance to start a three game homestand. The game marked the return of junior Erin Jordan-Cornell, who was an All-Big 8 Conference player last season in volleyball and basketball.

Cedar Ridge 3, East Chapel Hill 0

After its 21-game regular season winning streak came to an end against the defending 3A State Champions on Monday night, the Cedar Ridge volleyball team went back to the business of starting a new one.

On Tuesday, the Red Wolves defeated East Chapel Hill 3-0 at Cedar Ridge Gymnasium on scores of 25-20, 25-22 and 28-26. It was the second time this year the Red Wolves defeated the Wildcats.

It was a prompt response from the Red Wolves after they were swept by Conley on Monday. Just as the Red Wolves swept the Vikings last month in Greenville, Conley drove up to Hillsborough and handled Cedar Ridge on scores of 25-15, 25-20 and 25-18. It was the first time that Cedar Ridge lost a regular season match under the direction of second-year head coach Fiona Cunningham.

Conley defeated Cedar Ridge 3-1 in the 3A State Playoffs in January, the Red Wolves only loss in 2020.

“Last year, they got runs and we couldn’t use our middle,” Cunningham said. “When we played them earlier this season, we got runs and kept them from using their middle. Tonight, it flipped back. It seemed like neither team has an answer in the game itself, but adjusts for the next time. They just played great.”

Both the loss to Conley and the win over East Chapel Hill came in a sparsely populated Red Wolves Gymnasium, where the attendance was held down courtesy of mandates by the Orange County School Board to limit the spread of COVID-19. On Thursday night, the Red Wolves will likely face a rambunctious, rowdy atmosphere in Roxboro when they face Person, who was swept by Cedar Ridge two weeks ago in Hillsborough.

“We’ve known all season we’re beatable,’ Cunnigham said. “I think the girls didn’t want other teams to know that, but we’ve known that all season. We just another team to match us and Conley did that.”

Men’s Soccer: Cedar Ridge 2, Eastern Alamance 0

Days after scoring two goals against Orange in the Hillsborough Derby, Cedar Ridge’s Chris Mendez added to his team-lead in goals.

On Monday night, Mendez scored the game-winning goal as Cedar Ridge defeated Eastern Alamance 2-0 at Fred Brady Stadium in Mebane. Senior Jorge Salazar added insurance for the Red Wolves, who improved to 3-7 overall, 2-1 in the Central Carolina Conference. It was the second straight conference win for the Red Wolves.

Mendez now has seven goals on the season. Salazar is second on the team with seven points.

Goalkeeper Benjamin Weaver earned his second clean sheet of the season. It was his second straight win in net.

The Red Wolves were supposed to face Western Alamance on Wednesday night at Red Wolves Stadium, but the game was rained out. Cedar Ridge will host Person on Thursday night in Hillsborough.

Orange 4, Person 1

Orange co-Captain Jasper Tell scored the game-winning goal as the Panthers earned its first win in the Central Carolina Conference over Person on Monday night at Orange Soccer Park.

Junior Dylan Silverman assisted on the opening goal, then added Orange’s second goal later in the first half. In the second half, junior Cooper Zinn notched his third goal of the season. In the final ten minutes, junior Jack Pendergast added the first goal of his varsity career.

Orange’s trip to Northwood on Wednesday night was rained out. The Panthers will travel to Southern Durham on Friday.

Women’s tennis: Williams 5, Cedar Ridge 1:

Last Wednesday, the Red Wolves had just enough time to squeeze in six singles matches against Williams. Three of them went to 10-point tiebreakers in the third set, all of them claimed by Williams.

Red Wolves senior Chloe Patz won the Red Wolves only match at #2 singles over Haven Amick of Williams 7-6, 6-4. Cedar Ridge is 3-3 overall, 2-3 in the CCC. Their match scheduled for Wednesday against Person was rained out. The Red Wolves host Durham School of the Arts on Thursday.

Cross Country:

Two months after finishing 2nd in the state in the 3,200 meters, Orange senior Spencer Hampton made a major impression by finishing 2nd in the Friday Night Lights Festival, one of the biggest cross country events of the regular season at Ivey Redmon Sports Complex at Mount Tabor on September 10.

Hampton finished 2nd out of 238 runners with a time of 16:07.30. The only runner in the entire field to finish ahead of Hampton was North Lincoln’s Stephen Fernetti, who came in six seconds ahead of Hampton.

The strong showing by Hampton helped Orange finish fifth among 30 teams. In addition to Hampton, Orange’s Gabriel Schmid finished 10th. Sophomore Alden Cathey came in 23rd. Senior Ethan Horton came in 83rd and junior James Wheelis came in 93rd.

Providence captured the men’s team competition.

In the women’s race, Orange freshman Carolina Cathey was the top finisher, coming in 123rd. Kassi Scarantino, Sophia Schultz, Maggie Saunders and Margaret Hales also competed for Orange.

Women’s golf:

The latest Central Carolina Conference women’s golf meet was held at the Valley in Burlington on Monday. Orange senior Sarah Durham, this week’s Orange Panther of the Week, finished fifth overall out of 23 competitors with a 51. It was her third top five finish in three matches this year.

Sarah’s younger sister, Samantha, finished only one stroke behind her sister with a 52. Shannon Dorsi, Kayla Pope and Lucia Godinez also competed for Orange.

Cedar Ridge’s Olivia Aitkin tied for 9th with a 59.

Northwood won the team meet with a 151, two strokes better than Eastern Alamance’s 153. Orange came in fourth out of five teams with 168 strokes.