The Magnificent 7: Fall back and spring up
The fall sports season will officially end in Hillsborough on Saturday—unless Orange football can make the state playoffs.
The possibility of that appears remote, at best, as of Wednesday night. Orange’s current MaxPreps ranking is #69. Assuming that Orange beats Chapel Hill on Friday night, three of Orange’s five wins will have come against teams ranked in the bottom ten of 3A football, according to MaxPreps.
The Cedar Ridge men’s soccer team narrowly missed the state playoffs. The field of 64 was announced on Monday morning. Cedar Ridge was on the bubble, but missed out after losing to Southern Durham in the season finale.
Cedar Ridge ended the season 7-12-1, 5-9 in the Big 8 Conference.
The Cedar Ridge women’s cross country team has a good showing in the 3A Mideast Regionals at Northwood High School in Pittsboro. While Cedar Ridge didn’t qualify for the state championships as a team, like last year, there are several individual Red Wolves who will participate in the states on Saturday at Ivey Redmon Park in Kernersville.
Here is this week’s Magnificent 7, which will be the next-to-last edition for the fall sports season. We’ll begin focusing on winter sports next week.
Anne Morrell: Finished 12th at the 3A Mideast Regional Cross Country Championships at Northwood High. Morrell, a junior, qualified for the state championships for the third year in a row with a time of 20:16.4.
Zoe Wade: Finished 24th at the Mideast Regional Championships. Crossed the finish line at 21:05.84. Wade also qualified for the 3A State Championships. A sophomore, Wade will have participated in the state championships each of her first two years at Cedar Ridge.
Desi Raspberry: Cedar Ridge junior wide receiver had three receptions for 69 yards, including a 55-yard touchdown pass from William Berger against crosstown rival Orange on Friday night. Raspberry had the most yards from scrimmage for the Red Wolves.
Elliott Woods: Had 87 rushing yards and two touchdowns for Orange in a victory over Cedar Ridge at Red Wolves Stadium. Woods also had two tackles. Coming into the game, Woods led Orange in receptions and tackles. He was named this week’s Orange Panther of the Week.
Omarion Lewis: A sophomore, Lewis had a career-high 173 yards rushing against Cedar Ridge. Lewis added two touchdowns. He now leads the team in rushing yards and touchdowns this season, even though he missed the season-opener against R.J. Reynolds because it appeared he would spend this season on the junior varsity team.
Joseph Kiger: Led Orange in receiving with a career-high five receptions for 62 yards and a touchdown. On defense, Kiger led the team with six tackles. He also had ten rushing yards. Kiger also was the long snapper on extra points for kicker Nigel Slanker. He will play his final game in Hillsborough against Chapel Hill on Friday.
Bennett Fleming: The top finisher for the Orange men’s cross country team last week at the Mideast Regionals. Fleming came in 32nd with a time of 18:08.88. At the Big 8 Cross Country Championships at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, Fleming was also the top finisher for Orange.