Jeff Hamlin

The Big 8 Tennis Championships were set for East Chapel Hill’s Lindsay Linker Tennis Courts on Wednesday, but there were no champions to be had.

That’s because of torrential rain that fell just as the singles and doubles semifinals were set to start.

Cedar Ridge sophomore Olivia Ward captured her first two matches to advance to the semifinals, qualifying for the 3-A Mideast Regionals.  Ward captured her two matches 10-1 when the rain starte to fall.

Cedar Ridge’s top seed Ivy Garner did not have to play and will also advance to the regionals at the Burlington Tennis Center.

The Red Wolves will also send the doubles team of Bri Cellini and Kate Milner to the regionals. Cellini and Milner captured its first two matches before the skies opened.

The Regionals will be held October 20-21 at the Burlington Tennis Center.

Cedar Ridge is also awaiting to see if they will grab a wildcard spot in the 3A dual team tennis playoffs. The Red Wolves, who advanced to the state quarterfinals in 2016 after winning the Big 8 Championship, finished third in the Big 8 this season with a 13-6 overall record, 11-4 in the Big 8. Cedar Ridge came in 3rd behind conference champion East Chapel Hill and Chapel Hill.

Wednesday’s meet also officially ended Orange’s season. In doubles action, senior Caroline Branan and freshman Emma Williamson teamed in a hard fought match, falling to Chapel Hill 10-8. Orange’s Payton Clayton lost to Northwood’s #2 singles player 10-6.

After a victory over Northern Durham last week, Orange ends its season 6-15,

Certainly, the United States’ men soccer team catastrophic loss to Trinidad & Tobago to eliminate the Americans from the World Cup can’t compare to the Orange futbol squad losing a conference game. But it was pretty surprising.

Northwood, coming in with a 3-15 record, ended the Panthers’ 9-game winning streak 2-1 on Wednesday night at Panther Soccer Field.

Like Trinidad & Tobago on Tuesday night, the Chargers jumped out to a 2-0 halftime lead. Orange’s Jamar Davis, coming off a four-goal game against Cedar Ridge, tallied the Panthers’ only goal. But the Panthers could never find the equalizer.

With the loss, Chapel Hill now has sole possession of first place in the Big 8 at 10-1. Orange falls to 9-2 with a road trip to CHHS coming up Monday night.

The Panthers are 12-4-2.

Also on Wednesday night, Cedar Ridge tied Northern Durham 2-2 at Red Wolves Stadium. Jake Brown scored both of the Red Wolves goals. Brown also scored against Orange on Monday night.

Senior Cameron Koehler and Gavin Hughes assisted on Brown’s two goals. The Red Wolves had several opportunities to score in overtime, but couldn’t notch a game-winner.

Cedar Ridge is now 4-12-1, 3-7-1 in the Big 8. They travel to East Chapel Hill on Monday night.

With the 3A state playoffs approaching, wildcard playoff spots are up for grabs across the state. If Orange misses the playoffs, Tuesday night’s loss may be a big reason why.

Northern Durham rallied from a 2-1 deficit to defeat the Panthers 3-2 at Poe Gymtorium. The Knights completed a season sweep of the Panthers on scores of 25-18, 21-25, 22-25, 25-17 and 15-7.

Orange ends the regular season 13-9, 6-8 in the Big 8 Conference. The Panthers finish 5th in the Big 8. Chapel Hill captured the regular season championship while Northern Durham, East Chapel Hill and Northwood finished in a three-way tie for 2nd at 10-4.

Senior Bailey Lucas finished with three aces, ten kills, 16 assists and ten digs. Caroline Compton ended with one ace, one kill, 23 assists and five digs. Senior libero Faith Foushee had 27 digs and two assists. Kaitlyn Werden ended up with eight kills, one bock, one assist and two digs.

On Monday night, Cedar Ridge hosted its annual breast cancer awareness event. It featured a tripleheader with Stanford Middle School and Gravelly Elementary. The North Carolina School of Science and Math swept the Red Wolves 3-0.

Cedar Ridge will conclude its regular season tonight at Southern Durham.

After three years as a varsity soccer player, Orange’s Jamar Davis finally has his sweep against Cedar Ridge.

And he got a Texas Hat Trick while doing it.

Davis scored four goals and added an assist as Orange defeated Cedar Ridge 5-2 to capture the Hillsborough Derby at Panther Soccer Field on Monday night. In case the four goals wasn’t enough, Davis assisted on the other Orange goal that he didn’t score, which came from Luke Wirzba.

Levi Anderson and R.J. Pherribo had assists for the Panthers, who maintained a tie for first place in the Big 8 Conference. The Panthers are now tied with Chapel Hill for 1st place in the Big 8. They travel to Chapel Hill on Monday.

Orange is 12-3-2 after its ninth straight win. This is the first Orange team in at least ten years to win ten games in a season, and most likely that span is considerably longer.

The Panthers host Northwood tonight at Orange soccer field. The Panthers fought past the Chargers 2-0 last month in Pittsboro.

Cedar Ridge didn’t go down without a fight. Jake Brown and Eh Tha scored goals for the Red Wolves.

Cedar Ridge will host Northern Durham tonight at Red Wolves Stadium at 6:30.

This week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is sophomore cross country runner Ella Nissler. At Cedar Ridge’s home meet against Northern Durham, the Red Wolves girls team captured the meet behind Nissler’s 2nd place finish with a time of 23:49, only one second behind teammate Anne Morrell. Ella is also a gifted artist. In fact, this interview was conducted just before Ella had to return to art class.

Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week: Ella Nissler

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Photo Courtesy of Dave Lindaman 

Dave Doeren was at one end of the sideline at Auman Stadium on Friday night. Larry Fedora was at the other.

Bryse Wilson was in the tenth row with his father Chad and mother Tracey, fresh off a long season with the Rome Braves of the South Atlantic League.

The stars were out for Orange vs. Northern Durham, but Panthers Coach Van Smith wasn’t focused on that at kickoff. He just wanted to break the Ag Day Curse.

Ag Day is a tradition dating back over 50 years at Orange. It falls on the first Friday in autumn, and Smith dreads it by now. It’s a day full of sunshine, leisure, fun and games for students during the school day, which doesn’t always lead to positive results when his football team takes the field later that night.

“Every year I’ve been here, we’ve started horrible on Ag Day,” said Smith.

This year, Payton Wilson made sure there would be no letdown.

The senior opened the game with a 92-yard kickoff return, leading to Marvante Beasley’s 8-yard touchdown run only 21 seconds into the game.

For that moment, Smith didn’t dread Ag Day.

“All three phases, we started out fantastic,” said Smith. “I couldn’t be more proud.”

It didn’t stop there. The Panthers would roll to a 21-0 start and hold off Northern Durham 31-14 in front of a jam-packed crowd at Auman Stadium on Friday night.

Beasley finished with 133 yards on 21 carries. Junior Hunter Pettiford, who entered the game as the 2nd leading tackler on the team, rushed for 77 yards and a touchdown in his first substantial action at running back this year.

The Panthers made a season-high five interceptions, including two from senior safety Corban Kenion. Ryan Sellers, Eryk Mercado and Milton Purcell also had picks as Orange defeated Northern for the fifth straight time.

It was the first time the two teams met as conference rivals since 2000, when they were in the 4-A PAC-6.

The Orange defense held Northern to 135 yards and 14 points, both season-lows for the Knights, who had its five-game winning streak come to an end.

Orange could have easily led 21-0 by the end of the first quarter. The Panthers went on a 13-play, 90-yard drive tht swallowed up most of the first quarter clock, but Wilson was stuffed on a Northern goal line stand on 4th-and-goal from the 2.

Sellers made an Interception at the line of scrimmage. Paired with a Northern personal foul penalty, the Panthers started a drive at the Northern 20-yard line, but came away empty after a missed field goal

With 3:30 remaining in the first quarter, Kenion picked off Northern quarterback Brycen Jackson at the Knights 27-yard line. On the next play, Pettiford scored a touchdown on his first carry since the season-opening Northern Nash game.

After Orange’s defense forced a three-and-out, Wilson converted a 3rd-and-12 with a 12-yard run around right end. Four plays later, Beasley scored his 2nd touchdown on a 20-yard off tackle play.

Northern’s only offensive touchdown came with 7:53 remaining in the first half when Jackson found Zhameer Uqdah, who stepped out of two tackles on an eleven-yard scamper.

In the third quarter, the Knights trimmed Orange’s lead to 21-14 after freshman middle linebacker Anthony Freeman picked off a Wilson pass and returned it 16 yards for a touchdown.

Orange remained composed and used strong running by Beasley to extend the lead. Beasley started the drive with a 23 yard burst, accompanied by a horse collar penalty to advance to the Northern 32-yard line. Francisco McKinley kicked a 26-yard field goal to put Orange ahead 24-14.

Northern didn’t get another first down. Orange rode out the clock with a 9-play, 60-yard drive where Pettiford had carries of 17 and 16 yards. Wilson scored on a three-yard keeper, his only touchdown of the game.

ORANGE 31, NORTHERN DURHAM 14

Northern- 0   7    7    0-14

Orange-   14  7    0   10-34

O-Marvante Beasley 8 run (Francisco McKinley kick)

O-Hunter Pettiford 27 run (McKinley kick)

O-Beasley 20 run (McKinley kick)

N-Zhameer Uqdah 11 pass from Brysen Jackson (Hunter Malsch kick)

N-Anthony Freeman 16 interception return (Malsch kick)

O-McKinley 26 Field Goal

O-Payton Wilson 3 run (McKinley kick)

RUSHING: NORTHERN DURHAM: 17-41 (Daylon Felton 11-21, Patrick Harris 4-18, Jackson 2-13, team 1-(-1).

ORANGE: 51-254 (Beasley 21-133 2TD, Pettiford 8-77 TD, Wilson 19-43 TD, Morgan Paschall 2-2, team 1-(-1)

PASSING: NORTHERN 13-29 82 yards TD, 5 INT (Jackson 12-28 75 yards, TD, 5 INT; Felton 1-1, 7 yards)

ORANGE: 7-10 80 yards, INT (Brendan Huss 5-7, 53 yards, INT; Wilson 2-3 27 yards, INT)

RECEIVING: NORTHERN (Uqdah 6-40 TD, Felton 4-16, Alon Fallen 1-11, Jer’ald Brown 1-9, Jaylon Chestnut 1-8)

ORANGE (Sebastian Flores 3-32, Kendall Whitted 2-(-3), Wilson 1-41, Paschall 1-10)

The Orange defense made five interceptions against Northern Durham on Friday night at Auman Stadium. Senior Corban Kenion made two of them, a career high. Ryan Sellers, Eryk Mercado and Milton Purcell made the other picks as the Panthers improved to 5-1.

Orange Senior Safety Corbin Kenion Talks Two Interceptions vs. Northern Durham

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Orange linebacker/Running Back Hunter Pettiford scored a 28-yard touchdown on his first carry on Friday night against Northern Durham. Pettiford finished with a season-high 77 yards on 8 carries. Senior wide receiver Sebastian Flores made three receptions for 32 yards. Flores has made receptions in three consecutive games.

Orange’s Hunter Pettiford & Sebastian Flores Discuss Win Over Northern Durham

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