Photo by Sherri Corbin Nevius
There’s the Crustacean Sensation. There’s the Cow Man. There’s the son of a former UNC lacrosse star that is its leading scorer. And the goalkeeper is female.
Those parts, and many, many more, have put the Orange lacrosse team in line for its second straight conference championship.
Connor Kruse, the son of former UNC and Johns Hopkins lacrosse midfielder Travis Kruse, scored six goals while junior Tigh Metheney added two goals in the fourth quarter as Orange remained undefeated in the Mid-Carolina Conference with a 14-8 win over Cedar Ridge at Red Wolves Stadium on Friday night.
The Panthers (9-2, 7-0) have won seven in a row.
Cedar Ridge senior co-Captain Roman Oguntoyinbo factored in on every Red Wolf tally except one, scoring four goals and assisting on three others. Oguntoyinbo tied the game at 7-7 after he grabbed a ground ball on the opening faceoff of the second half, won by Cedar Ridge’s Jackson Kralic, and sent an overhand shot past Orange sophomore goalkeeper Katie Wolter just 25 seconds into the third quarter. Wolter and the rest of the Orange defense held Cedar Ridge to just one goal for the rest of the game. Wolter finished with eight saves.
In the second half, five different Panthers scored, including junior Joe Cady notching the game-winning goal with 8:29 remaining in the third quarter when he ran in from the right wing and threw a bounce shot past Cedar Ridge goalkeeper Leo Oguntoyinbo. Kruse, Metheney, Andrew Harris and Josh Crabtree added goals during Orange’s 7-1 run to finish the game.
“We have a pretty deep team,” said Orange coach Chandler Zirkle. “I think we have more guys who can up the middle of the field than other teams. This Cedar Ridge team is a phenomenal team. This is the best Cedar Ridge team since I’ve been here. It is, by far, the best coached team. They picked their level up to a pace that was insane.”
Cedar Ridge, under first-year head coach Cole Churchill, played its third game in as many days. On Wednesday night, Northwood scored in the final two minutes to defeat the Red Wolves 9-8. Cedar Ridge bounced back the next night with a 12-5 win over Seaforth in Pittsboro.
“I think we have some more running to do,” said Cedar Ridge coach Cole Churchill. “We can always be in better shape. I think we played a good first half and in the second half we lost some of our focus. We did some of the silly things that hurt us quickly. As the momentum shifted, we just never caught back up. Our energy was low because we were tired and we didn’t get the same kind of bench energy.”
Kruse, who had four goals in a 14-7 win at Western Alamance on Wednesday night in Elon, immediately inserted his influence by scoring the game’s opening two goals in just 48 seconds. Metheny found Kruse for the second goal, and the Panthers roared out to a 2-0 lead they wouldn’t concede for the rest of the half.
Oguntoyinbo hit senior attacker James Clayton with a centering pace, and Clayton fired in an sidearm shot from the top of the box for the first Cedar Ridge goal. Kruse responded with another goal with 5:52 remaining in the first quarter, following by the opening tally from junior Jake Wimsatt, Orange’s face-off ace. Kruse scored his fourth goal in the opening quarter on a running bounce shot with 1:27 remaining.
Cedar Ridge went on a 4-2 run to close out the first half. Junior Billy Power, who transferred to Hillsborough in November, took a pass from Clayton and fired in a shot from 15 yards away. After Cady scored for Orange, Oguntoyinbo fired in a shot in a man-up situation off an assist from Power after Orange was called for a slashing penalty. Clayton whittled the Orange lead down to 6-5 off a feed from Ogunotoyinbo. The Red Wolves had an opportunity to tie, but couldn’t clear the ball up the field off a check by Crabtree. Wimsatt chased in on the loose ground ball with a sidearm shot to increase Orange’s lead to 7-5.
Cedar Ridge’s Holden Neal put the Red Wolves within one goal at the half on another goal set up on an assist by Oguntoyinbo.
“For them to cut the lead down to one goal at the half was eye-opening for us, but in a fun way,” Zirkle said. “It put our level higher to where we had to get to. They were playing its third game in three days. Cedar Ridge played a great game.”
For a team with three players named “Josh,” the Panthers have had to get creative with nicknames. Josh Crabtree, who scored Orange’s 10th goal in the third quarter, is the “Crustacean Sensation.” Josh Cowan, a mainstay on defense, is the “Cow Man.” Whether he joined the FFA is a question that remains unanswered.
For Churchill, who was a member of the Cedar Ridge Class of 2015, the struggle to get healthy has been a huge obstacle. Senior Kellan Hepditch has been out of action, while another defensive stalwart, Thomas Allen, just returned to action this week. Gavin Scher, a freshman long-stink defenseman, has had shoulder problems.
Nonetheless, the Red Wolves (8-4, 5-4) remain likely to make the 3A/2A/1A State Playoffs.
“I think our consistency has been impacted because of injuries,” Churchill said. “Before you had two seniors and a junior that have played three years together. Then when you put others in the lineup, you don’t have the same chemistry. They do a great job coming together and I’m hoping adding Thomas back will give us more chemistry.”