Cedar Ridge Football

Article by Tim Hackett

Two weeks ago, Cedar Ridge High School fans saw something they hadn’t seen in nearly two years: a varsity Red Wolves football game. For a school that’s hoping to rebuild, revitalize and renew its football program, that was Step One. This week, Cedar Ridge was searching for success at Step Two: winning a varsity football game for the first time in exactly 750 days. 

But instead of Step Two, the Red Wolves (0-2) took a big step back, falling 42-0 to the Bartlett Yancey Buccaneers (3-0) Friday night in Hillsborough. After Cedar Ridge was unable to capitalize on seven Carrboro turnovers in the game two weeks ago, the Buccaneers showcased how to convert mistakes into points – five of the six Bartlett Yancey touchdowns came immediately off Cedar Ridge turnovers, and the sixth came courtesy of a muffed snap that the Buccaneer defense fell on in the end zone. 

The Red Wolves began their first Friday night game of the season with a three-and-out but quickly got back on offense as KJ Barnes soared to pick off a pass from Chase Johnson, the senior quarterback’s first giveaway this season. But just a couple of plays later, Cedar Ridge quarterback returned the favor with an undercooked pass down the right sideline that Shahiem Boyd nabbed, and the Buccaneers converted that into a 22-yard touchdown run by standout junior running back Michael Slade, who was averaging 12 yards per carry heading into Friday. Berger’s muffed snap led to the defensive score and a 12-0 lead for the visitors early in the second quarter, and before Cedar Ridge could escape the shadows of its own goal posts Boyd picked off Berger again to set up the Buccaneers inside the red zone and allow Johnson to scamper in on a QB keeper for a 20-0 lead. 

That’s when the wheels came off for the Red Wolves. After that touchdown, Miles Jefferson kicked off for the visitors and KJ Barnes received it. But somewhere during the return he coughed the ball up and Bartlett Yancey recovered it. A few plays later, Johnson found Boyd for a score. After that touchdown, Miles Jefferson kicked off for the visitors and Jaikel Gibbs received it. But somewhere during the return he coughed the ball up and Bartlett Yancey recovered it. The next play, veteran back Jacob Scales took it to the house for a score. After that touchdown, Miles Jefferson kicked off for the visitors and Elijah Whitaker received it. But somewhere during the return he coughed the ball up and Bartlett Yancey recovered it. A few plays later, Johnson hit Davon Lipscomb for a touchdown and the Buccaneers had a 42-0 lead. Three virtually identical plays with three identical outcomes: treasure buried in the end zone, unearthed by the Buccaneers. 

Something changed for Cedar Ridge after halftime. Sure, the visitors were able to coast somewhat with a massive lead the Red Wolves never threatened to reduce, but the Buccaneers played their starters, including Johnson, for the entire third quarter and much of the fourth. Sure, he mercy rule running clock went into effect after halftime, meaning neither team had to run nearly as many plays, but the Red Wolves still shut out Bartlett Yancey after the break. After a slow start, Isaiah McCambry had a strong second half on both sides of the ball, proving the week one suspicion that he is someone Cedar Ridge can build around. Braxton Mergenthal was a tackling force and clearly showed himself as the best defensive player wearing the dark uniform. And though they benefitted from more than a few Buccaneer drops in the second half, the Cedar Ridge secondary also improved as the game went on. Still, after a frustrating loss to Carrboro and this lackluster loss to Bartlett Yancey sandwiching the team’s only bye week, new head coach Torrean Hinton must turn the page quickly as his team gets set to head to Sanford to face Southern Lee for the first of three straight road games next week.

Third-year Bartlett Yancey head coach Jason Brumfield said this summer his main goal was to win more games than last year. After a 3-8 campaign a season ago, the Buccaneers seem primed to plunder one their most prosperous seasons in recent history. As for Cedar Ridge, their quest for their first varsity win since August 2017 will have to wait at least another week.

Payton Wilson: The former Big 8 Player of the Year made his long-awaited debut for N.C. State in its season-opener against East Carolina at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh on Saturday. Wilson made six tackles, including two tackles for loss, in his first college game as the Wolfpack hammered the Pirates 34-6. Wilson was part of a stout Wolfpack defense that kept the Pirates out of the end zone. ECU was held to 41 rushing yards and 269 yards total offense. East Carolina didn’t cross the 50-yard line for eight consecutive drives. The Pirates didn’t snap the ball in Wolfpack territory at all in the second half until a meaningless final drive that ended with a field goal. Wilson, a redshirt freshman, will return to action against Western Carolina at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh.

Trent Gill: The 2017 Cedar Ridge graduate also made his college football debut for N.C. State in the victory over East Carolina. Gill delivered the opening kickoff to the Wolfpack’s season, He also had five punts for an average of 41.6 yards. His longest kick was 53 yards. As placekicker, he had two touchbacks. As a punter, he downed two punts inside the 20-yard line.

Keshawn Thompson: A 2017 Orange High graduate, Thompson played extensively in for FCS Campbell in its 43-14 loss to Troy at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Troy, AL on Saturday night. Thompson made five tackles against the Trojans. Thompson, who was placed on scholarship during the summer, was named to the Big South Presidential Honor Roll last year. In 2018, he played in all eleven of Campbell’s games. The Camels will host Division II Shaw in Buies Creek next Saturday.

Kayla Hodges: On Friday night, Hodges notched her first college assist. Not only that, but she assisted on the game-winning goal as Elon defeated Radford 2-1 at Cupp Stadium in Virginia. Off a corner kick, Hodges headed the ball to Taylor Paradoski, who fired it into the net from four yards out in the 67th minute. Elon is 3-0, already equaling its win total from 2018. Hodges has started all three games. Elon travels to Furman on Sunday afternoon.

Brittany Daley: After going undefeated during the regular season in 2018, the Division III Greensboro women’s soccer team dropped its opener to Washington & Lee 2-0 in the Washington & Lee Tournament in Lexington, VA on Friday. Daley, a 2018 Cedar Ridge graduate, started for the Pride. On Saturday, Greensboro rebounded with a 2-1 win over Bridgestone College in the consolation game. Daley also started that game at centerback.

Jordan Rogers: A 2018 Orange graduate, Rogers started her sophomore season with Division III William Peace University’s women’s soccer team on Friday night. St. Andrews defeated the Pacers 2-1 in Laurinburg. Rogers started at midfield.

Lionel Reid-Shaw: The Division III Dickinson’s men’s soccer team started its season with two wins. Reid-Shaw, a senior who graduated from Orange, started in a 3-0 victory over Rensselaer at Miller Memorial Field in Carlisle, PA on Saturday night. Reid-Shaw started at wingback. He also played in Dickinson’s 6-3 victory over Plattsburgh on Friday.

Lili Henry: The Division III Methodist volleyball team started its season in the Oregon Trail Volleyball Tournament in Newberg, OR. The Monarchs dropped all four of its matches against Linfield College and George Fox University on Friday. On Saturday, Pacific University and Lewis & Clark College defeated Methodist. In the 3-0 loss to Linfield, Henry led Methodist with 18 assists and three aces. She also had three kills. Against George Fox, Henry had 22 assists, four digs and a block. In Saturday’s 3-1 loss to Pacific University, Henry registered 24 assists, three kills, and five digs. The finale against Lewis & Clark, a 3-0 loss, featured Henry with 26 assists and seven digs.

Bailey Lucas: Lucas started her sophomore year as a member of the Division III Meredith Volleyball team with three wins and a loss at the Route 42 Classic this weekend. On Friday, the Avenging Angels defeated Catholic 3-0 and fought back to defeat Eastern Mennonite 3-2 in Yoder Arena in Harrisonburg, VA on Friday. Meredith defeated Lynchburg 3-1 before falling to Bridgewater 3-0 on Saturday.

Lucas didn’t play on Friday, but did see action against Lynchburg. Lucas had two kills, 16 assists and three digs. She also played all three sets against Bridgewater, where she registered one kill, seven digs, one dig and one block.

Payton Wilson: After being on the sidelines for nearly two years, Wilson is expected to make his college debut on Saturday when N.C. State faces East Carolina at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh. On Monday, Wilson was listed as a backup as a weak side linebacker junior Louis Acceus. Wilson will likely share time with redshirt junior Brock Miller. Wilson was the 2017 Big 8 Defensive Player of the Year and helped lead Orange to three consecutive Big 8 Championships, including an undefeated regular season in 2016. Wilson also played quarterback, wide receiver, and punter for Orange under head coaches Pat Moser and Van Smith. Wilson is a redshirt freshman who missed last season after tearing his ACL during spring practice in March 2018. He originally injured the knee against Cedar Ridge on the opening kickoff between the two teams on October 27, 2017.

Stone Edwards: Edwards, who graduated from Orange in 2016, is listed as a second-string defensive end for Vanderbilt going into its season-opener against #3 Georgia at Vanderbilt Stadium in Nashville on Saturday. Edwards, a redshirt sophomore who majors in Psychology, is behind junior Dayo Odeyingbo on the two-deep. In 2018, Edwards made his college debut as a redshirt freshman. He played 12 games and compiled seven tackles, one tackle for loss and one sack. Edwards was also part of Orange’s 2017 season that went undefeated in the regular season and only allowed three offensive touchdowns the entire season.

Adam Chnupa: The 2018 Cedar Ridge graduate will be in uniform for the first time this weekend when FCS Elon takes on North Carolina A&T at BB&T Stadium in Greensboro on Saturday. Chnupa is a redshirt freshman for the Phoenix. North Carolina A&T is #20 in the preseason FCS poll and has won three of the last four HBCU National Championships. Elon is #21 in the preseason FCS poll.

Bryse Wilson: It was another strong performance for Wilson for the AAA International League’s Gwinnett Stripers on Tuesday night. Wilson earned his sixth straight win as the Stripers defeated the Norfolk Tides 8-2 at Coolray Field in Gwinnett County, GA. Wilson tossed seven innings, striking out nine. He surrendered nine hits and two runs in his sixth consecutive quality start. Wilson is now 10-7 with a 3.42 ERA. He hasn’t lost since July 21. With the win, along with the Durham Bulls’ victory over the Charlotte Kngihts, Gwinnett clinched a berth in the Governor’s Cup Playoffs. Major League Baseball rosters expand on Sunday. If Wilson is recalled by Atlanta, it will be his fifth stint with the Braves this season.

Kayla Hodges: For the second straight game, Wilson started as a midfielder for the Elon women’s soccer team against High Point at Rudd Field in Elon on Sunday. The Phoenix claimed its second straight win to open the season, 1-0 over the Panthers. Wilson fired one shot. Charlotte-native Carson Jones scored the game’s only goal. Elon will return to action with a road trip to Radford on Thursday. If Elon wins this weekend, they will have already matched its win total from all of 2018.

Chandler Compton: As mentioned last week, Compton plays as a wingback for the Wofford men’s soccer team. The Terriers starts its 2019 season at Houston Baptist on Friday night.

It was 65 degrees when Cedar Ridge kicked off its 2019 high school football season.

And that was far from the most unusual thing Saturday.

But back to weather for a moment….65 degrees on opening day? This is North Carolina high school football in mid-August. You’re supposed to sit in the hot late afternoon sun with humidity thick enough to make you beg for your next breath.

Yet by the end of the day on Saturday, it seemed appropriate. Why should the weather on August 24 make any sense when nothing else in the game did either?

Teams aren’t supposed to commit seven turnovers and still win. But Carrboro did. A football fan can go years between watching their team give up two safeties. On Saturday, there were two within three quarters, including the opening snap of Cedar Ridge’s season.

On a muddy, rain drenched day, Carrboro defeated Cedar Ridge 24-18 in the Red Wolves’ first varsity football game since 2017. After not fielding a varsity team in 2018, the Red Wolves returned in a game that was more mud ball than football.

It was Carrboro’s first win over the Red Wolves since 2015. Carrboro (1-0) senior quarterback T.K. Paisant scored the Jaguars’ only touchdown in the first half on a five-yard keeper around right end. Paisant was also the Jaguars’ leading tackler as a linebacker.

Despite being statistically dominated for much of the first half, the Red Wolves still had a drive to potentially win the game late. Senior wide receiver K.J. Barnes had the longest play from scrimmage of the day with a 73-yard catch-and-run from sophomore quarterback William Berger, who was one of many Red Wolves making their varsity debut.

“We had more than K.J. show up today,” said Cedar Ridge Football Coach Torrean Hinton. “We had Jaikel Gibbs show up today. We had a lot of kids in the interior that fought hard. Braxton (Mergenthal) fought extremely hard. We fought all the way to the end.”

Gibbs, a junior who started for Cedar Ridge’s basketball team last year, had an interception and a fumble recovery in the first half.

The tone for the wet and wild afternoon was set early after Carrboro punter Robert Allen pooched a kick to the Cedar Ridge 3-yard line, the first of nine Red Wolves drives to start inside its own 20-yard line. Berger watched the first snap of Cedar Ridge’s season sail over his head and out of the end zone for a Carrboro safety, two points that the Red Wolves spent the rest of the day chasing.

“To play from behind the whole game, and still have a shot in the end, you can’t ask for more than that.” Hinton said. “We obviously have to cut down on mistakes and turnovers. Some of them were influenced by the conditions, but some of them weren’t.”

Carrboro ventured into Red Wolves territory on its first four possessions, but couldn’t muster any points. Early in the second quarter, Gibbs picked off a Paisant pass, only to have Carrboro’s Anthony Mudrow make his own interception two plays later.

That led to Paisant’s 5-yard touchdown run. The subsequent attempt for 2-points failed and Carrboro led 8-0 with 5:46 remaining in the first half.

Cedar Ridge, still without a first down, went three-and-out on its next drive, but Gibbs recovered a fumble off a muffed punt return at the Carrboro 31-yard line. After running back Isiah McCambry chewed up eight yards on a 3rd-and-7, Berger found Brandon Poteat for a 14-yard touchdown pass to narrow Carrboro’s lead to 8-6.

Cedar Ridge botched a punt snap on the first possession of the second half, leading to Paisant finding Anthony Muldrow for a 32-yard touchdown pass with 9:38 remaining in the 3rd quarter.

The subsequent Cedar Ridge drive could have ended early, but Carrboro was hit with two penalties (personal foul and pass interference) on consecutive third downs. McCambry pushed into the red zone with a 14-yard run, then scored his first varsity touchdown on a 3-yard gallop. Cedar Ridge’s attempt for two failed to keep the Carrboro lead at 14-12.

Carrboro backup quarterback Jake Adams found Tim Rogers-Neal for a 37-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the fourth quarter. In the only successful point after touchdown of the day, Adams found Muldrow for a two-point conversion to push Carrboro lead to 22-12.

Two plays later, Berger hit Barnes for the 71-yard score to narrow Carrboro’s lead to 22-18.

The final six minutes didn’t have any scoring, but it sure wasn’t boring. With a chance to take the lead after a Carrboro punt, Cedar Ridge fumbled and Braden Hunter recovered at the Red Wolf 12-yard line.

On a 3rd-and-7 from the Cedar Ridge 8-yard line, Paisant threw a pass that went off the helmet of Red Wolf linebacker Braden Thompson and was caught by Muldrow at the 1-yard line. Right on cue, Carrboro (you guessed it) fumbled the snap, which was recovered by Elijah Whitaker in the end zone.

Starting from its own 20, Cedar Ridge promptly fumbled another snap in the end zone. McCambry raced back and beat Paisant to the ball for another Carrboro safety instead of a Jaguar touchdown, increasing the Carrboro lead to merely 24-18 and still giving the Red Wolves a fighting chance.

On the subsequent free kick, Carrboro fumbled and Cedar Ridge’s Matthew Hinton recovered. On the next play, Carrboro’s Rogers-Neal picked off his 2nd pass of the game.

Cedar Ridge had the last possession to take the lead, but it stalled out at its own 38-yard line as time ran out.

“We have to be better and fine tune some things,” Hinton said. “We’ll get better.”

The return of Cedar Ridge varsity football has been pushed back a day.

On Friday afternoon, the Cedar Ridge-Carrboro football game was postponed until 4 o’clock Saturday afternoon. Cedar Ridge Athletic Director Andy Simmons confirmed the game will be played to benefit both teams’ schedules.

Cedar Ridge is scheduled to have its off week on August 30. But Carrboro is slated to face East Chapel Hill next week and won’t have an open date until late September. By that point, Cedar Ridge will already be in its Big 8 Conference schedule.

Hillsboroughsports.com will have coverage of Carrboro at Cedar Ridge starting at 3:45 on Saturday afternoon for the C&R Ski Outdoor Pregame Show. Kickoff will be at 4.

It may not be the majority in Orange County, but there have been a lot of people waiting for tonight in Hillsborough, White Cross, Efland and even Mebane.

It’s’ been 735 days since the Cedar Ridge varsity football team has won a game. It came against Carrboro at Red Wolves Stadium.

Whether that’s an omen for tonight is up for the reader to decide, but Carrboro will visit Hillsborough again tonight with a 30% chance of rain in the forecast.

But what’s transpired between the Red Wolves’ last triumphant moment on the gridiron and tonight has tested the Cedar Ridge community, led to the departures of two head coaches, and incurred the wrath of Cedar Ridge parents toward the Orange County School System, including recently departed Superintendent Todd Wirt.

The sport of football, still the most valuable fuel that keeps the engine of high school sports pumping, had a existential crisis locally last August. The Friday nights in Red Wolves Stadium were never as solemn as they were in 2008, when Cedar Ridge didn’t field a varsity team.

When the Orange County School System made the announcement in June 2018, it caught many by surprise, not the least of which head coach Scott Loosemore, who departed for an assistant’s job with Scotland County soon afterwards.

After the district’s announcement, submitted in a Tweet, tensions boiled over the following Monday. School officials curiously scheduled a town hall meeting at Cedar Ridge cafeteria to discuss the future of football at 6:30 PM. It just so happened that the Orange County School Board met at Gravelly Hill Middle School at 7PM that same night, making it impossible for parents who wanted to sound off to both then-Principal Heather Blackmon and Superintendent Wirt (who was at the board meeting). The timing of the two meetings was no coincidence, and it only served to deepen the divide when several parents drove to Efland to give school board members (none of whom had any role in canceling the varsity season) a piece of their minds just as the meeting was finishing.

Several school board members stayed well after the session ended to listen to concerns, but some of the exchanges were hardly civil.

All of that is now in the past, but it wouldn’t be a Cedar Ridge football training camp without some adversity. On July 29, moments before the Red Wolves were ready to start its first practice, head coach Antonio King informed Athletic Director Andy Simmons he was leaving to become a running backs coach at North Carolina Central University.

The following morning, Torrean Hinton was barely awake when he received a phone call inquiring if he would be interested in become varsity coach. He accepted.

For seniors like wide receiver K.J. Barnes, Braedon Thompson, Braxton Mergenthal, Jaikel Gibbs and Zachary Holmes, tonight’s game isn’t just about trying to win.

Just as Robert Louis Stevenson once wrote that “To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive,” this Cedar Ridge team can achieve something without winning.

They can start a healing process for an athletic program that’s been overwhelmed with coach and player defections for the past year. None of that can be solved in one night.

But the bottom line is Friday nights are back at Cedar Ridge.

The Red Wolves will travel hopefully tonight.

And not a moment too soon.