Jeff Hamlin

A second consecutive Big 8 Individual Conference Championship was more than enough for Cedar Ridge’s Ian Elliott to be named the Big 8 Male Runner of the Year on Wednesday.

Elliott, a senior, earned the honor for the second consecutive year. He finished first in three separate events this year, including the Big 8 Championship at Chapel Hill High School. His time of 16:42.28 edged out Chapel Hill’s Ryan Combs by eight seconds.

On top of that, he ran while the temperature was 89-degrees—in mid October.

“It was a lot grittier this year,” said Elliott, who won the 2015 Big 8 championship at Pittsboro’s Northwood High. “I feel like I’m good running in the heat. We put in a lot of miles during the summer. Although I knew this would feel awful, it’s just running.”

Elliott also set his personal best time of 16:30 at the Adidas XC Challenge at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary.

Through plenty of success during his high school years, Elliott doesn’t see cross country in his immediate future.

“I’m not looking to run competitively in college,” said Elliott. “I’d love to stay in shape and run for a club. Maybe run a “Fun Run 5K.” Maybe take a race every now and then just to see where I’m at. I think after this upcoming track season, I’ll be done with competitive running.”

Two Orange runners earned at-large spots: Andrew Sollars, who had the highest finish for the Panthers in the Big 8 Championships, and Sam Rasinske.

On the girls side, Cedar Ridge’s Elizabeth Zarzar was named to the All-Conference team following a third place finish at the Big 8 Championships. Last month, Zarzar was honored with the WRAL Extra Effort Award.

“I was proud of my run that day, especially because of the heat,” said Zarzar. “I didn’t get my personal record. My time was still a lot better than I thought it was.”

Like Elliott, Zarzar runs indoor and outdoor track. Last spring, she finished 3rd in the Big 8 Conference in the 3200 meters. She also finished 3rd in the region in the same event.

Also making the All-Big 8 Conference from Cedar Ridge was Julie Averette, who finished eighth in the 3A Mideast Regionals with a time of 20:31.

For Orange, Adalyn Fleming made All-Big 8. Flemming, who started basketball season with Orange on Tuesday in a season-opening victory over East Chapel Hill, finished first in Orange’s opening home meet on September 7th against Burlington Williams. After finishing 11th in the Big 8 Championships, she came in 13th at the Mideast Regionals.

Earning At-large sports for Orange in girls cross country was Ava Heffernan.

Cedar Ridge’s senior co-captains Tess Johnson and Leah Thompson, sophomore Kate Millner and freshman Olivia Ward were named to the Big 8 All Conference team on Wednesday.

Orange Coach Andy Brown was honored as Big 8 Coach of the Year. Brown, who hinted at retirement during October’s Big 8 Tournament, led the Panthers to a 6-6 record after the Panthers went 1-12 in 2015.

Johnson, who attended Governor’s School in Raleigh during the summer, was the top singles player for a Cedar Ridge team that captured its first conference championship in school history. She also qualified for regionals for the second consecutive year.

The Red Wolves went 19-2, 12-0 in the Big 8. Johnson and Ward were also the top doubles team, which went 7-4 during the season.

Thompson finished 14-2 as a singles player. She also qualified for the 3A Mideast Regional in doubles with Alana Lutz.

Millner teamed with Senera Sauers to win the Big 8 Doubles Championship at Orange High Tennis Courts. The duo defeated teammates Thompson and Lutz 8-2.

Ward, the daughter of Person High tennis coach Lynn Ward, also qualified for regionals after going 14-4. She played #2 singles as a freshman.

The Orange doubles team of Ashley Tilley and Natalie Darveaux were also named to the All-Big 8 team. Tilley and Darveaux finished fourth in the Big 8 Doubles Tournament and qualified for regionals.

Chapel Hill’s Gabby Kmiec was named the Big 8 Player of the Year. Southern Durham earned the Sportsmanship Award.

The Orange Panthers undefeated run through the Big 8 Conference has resulted in honors for its top defensive player and its outgoing head coach.

One day after receiving his 11th scholarship offer from Virginia Tech, Orange junior linebacker Payton Wilson has been named the Big 8 Defensive Player of the Year.

Additionally, Orange Coach Pat Moser earned Big 8 Coach of the Year honors in an email released by conference officials Wednesday morning.

Wilson, who has also received offers from UNC, N.C. State, Duke, Penn State, Appalachian State, East Carolina, Maryland, Wake Forest, Virginia, and Vanderbilt, led the Panthers defense with 127 tackles, 39 tackles for loss. He also registered 13 sacks, second only to Ryan Sellers’ total of 15.

Wilson also had five punt returns for touchdowns. He didn’t start returning punts until the 3rd week of the season, when he scored on the first punt return he ever had in a varsity game against Riverside. In Orange’s 49-7 win over Southern Durham, Wilson broke the game open with two punt return touchdowns.

While the Big 8 doesn’t name players for specific positions, Wilson could have just as likely earned an all-conference spot on offense, as well. Playing wingback and wide receiver, Wilson finished with 756 rushing yards, as well as 13 receptions for 305 yards. He had a total of 16 touchdowns (six rushing, four receiving, five punt returns and an interception return against Cedar Ridge).

This was Wilson’s first full season at the varsity level. He suffered a broken ankle on the first day of practice during his sophomore season, forcing him to sit out eight games.

Moser guided the Panthers to its 5th consecutive 10-win season, which ended Friday in the 2nd round of the 3-A state playoffs. Dating back to Orange’s opening in 1963, the school had only one 10-win season before Moser joined the Panthers in 2008.

The Panthers had its first undefeated regular season since 1978 behind a defense that yielded just five touchdowns in a 12-1 season. Going into its final game of the season against Havelock, Orange held 10 of its 12 opponents to under 100 yards total offense. Even in defeat against the Rams, Orange held Havelock to a season-low 14 points on 293 yards.

Moser, who announced plans to retire before the end of the season, ends his career at Orange with a record of 58-26. He guided Orange to two consecutive Big 8 Championships (in 2015, Orange was awarded the outright championship after Southern Durham forfeited its last game due to use of an ineligible player). In 2014, he guided Orange to a 13-2 season, the most wins in a season in school history.

Ever notice the term “putting up video game numbers” is almost exclusively used in context of offense?

Whether its MLB ’16, FIFA, Madden 2016 or NHL ’16, it’s offense that people gravitate towards. Regardless of what sport you enjoy, you can bet there has been some rule change over the years to benefit the offense. And almost never one to help the defense. Whether it’s lowering the pitcher’s mound in baseball before the 1969 season, the NBA adding the 3-point line after mergining with the American Basketball Association or the myriad of rules instituted by Gary Bettman on the ice, the defense hardly ever gets a bone tossed its way.

Of course, it’s a long way to professional sports from where the Orange Panthers are now, but it doesn’t make their defensive accomplishments this year any less remarkable.

Orange is 12-0 and won the Big 8 Championship. That’s despite having a giveaway/takeaway turnover ratio of -5 during the regular season. The Panthers made six turnovers in its August 26th 21-13 over Northern and basically stayed in the turnover hole all season. And it didn’t matter.

Why? Defense.

They’ve given up 82 yards per game. They’ve yielded four touchdowns the whole season (Northern scored 13 points against Orange, but six of those came off a fumble return for a touchdown). On September 16th, Western Guilford scored a garbage time touchdown with 8:34 remaining in the fourth quarter.

It’s the only points Orange has given up in the second half all year.

On and on it goes. The Panthers have outscored opponents 179-12 in the second half.  10 of Orange’s 12 opponents have been held under 100 yards total offense, including Wilson Fike in Friday night’s 1st round 3A playoff game.

The Golden Demons had 92 yards, which by current standards isn’t a bad number. It’s the fifth-highest amount of yardage Orange has allowed this season. (Western Guilford’s 243 is the highest. Southern Durham had 123).

Linebacker Payton Wilson has made 106 tackles, 13 sacks and 39 tackles for loss. The defensive line of Stone Edwards, Noah Rogers and Ryan Sellers have their own personal competition to see who will have the most sacks by season’s end. Right now, Sellers is in the lead with 15, while Edwards has 13 and Rogers with 11. However, Rogers does have the most tackles for loss among the trio with 27.

Perhaps most impressive of all is Orange’s 24 consecutive quarters without giving up a touchdown, which ended Friday night when Fike quarterback Jaelynn Melton scored on a 40-yard zone read in the 2nd quarter.

To put that streak in proper context, Orange went six full games without giving up a touchdown. That’s half a regular season.

Of course, these numbers are easy to outline now because the Panthers will face the most dangerous offense yet in Havelock this Friday in the 2nd round of the 3A playoffs at Auman Stadium.

The 11-1 Rams average 42 points per game out of its spread offense run by quarterback Corey Cooper.

In 20 years, however, fans of Orange football can look back at the Big 8 Conference champions and talk about how the team put up video game numbers.

But not in the way it’s usually meant.

On this week’s edition of the Prep Sports Tonight podcast, we’re joined by Orange defensive end Stone Edwards. After Friday night’s victory over Fike, Stone has 61 tackles, 21 tackles for loss and 13 sacks. But there’s more to Stone than just football. There’s his educational background, where he took college classes taught by his parents at UNC when he was barely a teenager. Also joining the podcast is safety Keshawn Thompson, who was honored with the Extra Effort Award from WRAL television earlier this year. This show was taped on Thursday afternoon, the day before Orange’s victory over Fike.

The Prep Sports Tonight podcast is presented by Occoneechee Golf Club. Learn how you can give the golfer in your family the gift of a trip to Occoneechee Golf Course in Hillsborough this Christmas by going to their website, which can be found here.

To listen to the Orange-Fike game, go to Jeff Hamlin on Facebook. The link is there. Sorry for the confusion!

The Orange Panthers lost its season opener on Tuesday night to Leesville Road 76-65. Connor Crabtree had 28 points on 10-of-14 shooting from the field. The Panthers seek its first win of the season on Saturday at Millsbrook High School against Rolesville. Tipoff is at 12:30.

Orange Coach Greg Motley Discusses Loss to Leesville Road

No Description

For nearly 20 years, Greg Motley has had to focus on coaching one team at Orange.

This year will be unique because he’ll be coaching two teams. The one he has now, and the one who he’ll have at the beginning of 2017. If not sooner.

The Orange team that took the floor on Tuesday night in the HighSchoolOT.com season tipoff against Leesville Road had ten players. Of those, eight played. Three of those were freshman who would be playing on the junior varsity under normal circumstances.

These aren’t normal circumstances. Orange is without Ryan Sellers, Devondrez Moore, Jackson Schmid, and possibly two other players who are still playing football. If Orange makes a deep run in the playoffs, those players may not see the hardwood until after Christmas.

Motley has known this for over a month and prepared accordingly for Tuesday night. To paraphrase the infamous words of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at the height of the Iraq war, Motley went into the game with the army he had, not the army he might have wanted.

Orange almost won anyway.

Leading 59-58 with 3:58 remaining, the Panthers, which played with a six-man rotation,  got tired down the stretch trying to defend Leesville Road’s three-guard lineup. The Pride finished the game on a 18-8 run to defeat Orange 76-66.

Leesville Road advanced to Saturday’s championship game against Riverside. Orange will face Roseville Saturday at 12:30.

As expected, Orange was led by its two leading scorers from last season. Connor Crabtree, who signed with UNC-Asheville last week, had 28 points on 10-of-14 shooting from the field. Center Logan Vosburg finished with 14 points and eleven rebounds. In his first varsity game, Mitch Portman had 13 points while freshman Joey McMullin had ten.

The Pride was led by Jalen Benjamin’s 25 points while D.J. Horne added 19.

Orange led 27-21 with 4:21 remaining in the first half behind Crabtree’s 12 first half points. But Leesville Road finished the half on a 11-1 run to take a 31-28 lead.

The lack of depth along Orange’s first line led to the Pride getting 19 offensive rebounds, leading to 68 field goal attempts compared to Orange’s 41. The Panthers had one offensive rebound. Vosburg had little help on the boards. He grabbed eleven rebounds, while the rest of the team had eleven combined.

The Pride’s pressure defense forced 23 Orange turnovers while LRHS committed only seven.

After Saturday, the Panthers play its first home game on Tuesday, November 29th against East Chapel Hill. It will be a varsity doubleheader, starting with the girls game at 5:30.

It’s impossible to have a defense that’s yielded only three touchdowns all season without a good secondary. That’s what Orange safety Keshawn Thompson has delivered to the team this season. Thompson is not only excellent in coverage, but he’s a threat at the line of scrimmage to blitz. Thompson has made 17 tackles for loss, two sacks, two interceptions and two fumble recoveries. He was also named the Extra Effort Award Winner from WRAL’s Tom Suiter last month.

Orange Panther of the Week: Keshawn Thompson

Keshawn Thompson has been the anchor of the Orange secondary during its undefeated romp through the regular season. The senior safety has made 17 tackles for loss, two interception and two fumble recoveries this season. This video featured appearances by Kendall Whitted and Payton Wilson after Orange defeated Oxford Webb in its regular season finale.