For the second time in three weeks, Orange wrestling captured a team championship at a multi squad tournament.

After winning the Jim King/Orange Invitational two weeks ago, the Panthers finished first in the Eastern Alamance Eagle Classic on Saturday. Behind 1st place finishes from Gavin Wiggins (120), Charlie Fitzpatrick (152) and Payton Wilson (220), the Panthers finished with 286 points, outdistancing Southeast Guilford’s 259. Cedar Ridge finished with 65.

After coming in as the runner-up at the JKO, Wiggins won the 120 pound championship with two major decisions and a pin. He defeated Graham’s Isiah Smith 11-1 on Friday to advance to the semifinals. On Saturday, he easily put away Bishop McGuiness’ Jared Russell 15-1 before pinning Southeast Guilford’s Turner Garrison in 2:32. Wiggins is now 17-3.

Fitzpatrick’s path to the championship was so dominant, he was only extended into the 2nd period once in four matches. He pinned Raleigh Sanderson’s Arsalan Momand in :17, followed by a 1:04 pin of Bartlett Yancey’s Tristan Winn. In the semifinals, he pinned Eastern Alamance’s Jordan Carr-Daye in 1:12. Fitzpatrick earned the championship by pinning Cole Wellington of Dan River (out of Danville, VA) in 2:55. Fitzpatrick is 19-1 with 16 pins.

Wilson’s three matches might as well have been timed with a stopwatch. He pinned Southeast Guilford’s Levi West in :56 for the 220 championship—his longest match of the weekend. He finished off Cedar Ridge’s Izaac Rivera in :51 on Friday, then defeated Bishop McGuiness’ Nick Ackerman in :16, the second-fastest pin of the weekend (East Chapel Hill’s Micah Baker pulled off a :15 pin in the 285 consolation round).

After missing the final two dual matches in last weekend’s Jim Coggins Classic at Southwest Guilford and Wednesday’s dual match against Northwood because of an ingrown hair on his right leg, Bailey Hawkins returned to action for a runner-up finish at 132 pounds. Hawking scored two pins (over Bartlett Yancey’s Talyn Graes in 1:24 and Northwest Guilford’s Finn Queen in 1:14), then claimed a major decision over Jose Chahulz of Burlington Williams 16-0. Southeast Guilford’s Austin Robinson captured the championship by beating Hawkins 15-6.

Also finishing second was Mitchel Askew at 106 and Daylan Alston at heavyweight. Askew rolled into the finals after a 9-4 victory over Bartlett Yancey’s Jacob Wright in the semfinals. He fell to Northern Guilford’s Heath Ginger 11-3. Askew scored two pins on Thursday over Dan River’s Jalon Scales (1:30) and Northwest Guilford’s Duncan McGuire (:56). Askew, who had a ten-match winning streak going into the Ginger bout, is now 18-2.

Alston pinned Northern Guilford’s Paul Klutz in 1:22 to make the semifinals. On Saturday, he pinned Dakota McLendon of Eastern Alamance in :46 before falling to Southeast Guilford’s Evan Surgeon 11-3.

At 170, Josiah Ramirez suffered his first loss of the season after opening the campaign with 19 straight win. He fell in the semfinals to Northwest Guilford’s Chris Garrison 3-2. Ramirez rebounded to earn third place by pinning Cedar Ridge’s Seth McKee in 2:20, followed by another pin of Western Alamance’s Devin Daniels in 3:49.

Also earning third place was Levi Anderson (138); Avery Jenkins (145); Caleb Brimmer (160); and Braden Homsey (182).

Jamar Davis finished fourth at 195. Mitchell Lopeman came in 5th at 126.

Among Cedar Ridge grapplers, Seth McKee  finishing 5th at 170 pounds. He pinned Walker Stewart of Williams in :18 before falling to Southeast Guilford’s Ben Bolcavage in :30. In the consolation rounds, McKee pinned Alex Credle of Northern Guilford in :50 and Bartlett Yancey’s Zack Riccihini in 1:49.

The Red Wolves’ DeMarcus Smith finished 5th at 170. He pinned Cummings’ Jacob Boggs in 2:13 to place in the tournament. Smith earned wins over Williams’ Charlie Sartin, Sanderson’s Kim Blythe and Bishop McGuinness’ Garrett Hope.

Orange and Cedar Ridge will partcipate in the Tiger Holiday Wrestling Classic, a two-day tournament that begins Thursday at Chapel Hill High School. The finals will be Friday.

The 80th Shine Bowl of the Carolinas bore little resemblance to the 79th.

Last year’s battle between North and South Carolina was the highest-scoring in event history, with North Carolina winning 54-39.

On Saturday, it was a defensive struggle at Gibbs Stadium in Spartansburg, SC. South Carolina opened the scoring with a touchdown and never saw the end zone again. They had two first downs in the second half.

North Carolina defeated South Carolina 17-10 on a 18-yard touchdown pass from Myers Park quarterback Jack Davidson to Northwest Guilford’s Thomas Henningan with :20 remaining.

North Carolina had four Orange representatives on the squad. Defensive end Stone Edwards and linebacker Devondrez Moore. Serving as assistant coaches were Panthers head coach Pat Moser and defensive coordinator Van Smith.

Edwards, who finished his senior season with 67 tackles, 21 tackles for loss and 13 sacks, had 2 tackles and a sack. Moore, a linebacker for transferred to Hillsborough from Northern Durham, was 2nd on the team with 79 tackles in 2016. On Saturday, he had 1.5 tackles for loss.

North Carolina scored the game’s final 17 points.

The Shrine Bowl coincided with State Championship Saturday, when seven state championships were decided to end the fall sports season. While Moser, Smith, Edwards and Moore would have preferred to spend their Saturday playing at BB&T Field for the 3-A State Championship, Orange High was loosely represented in the state championships.

Former Orange running back Damon Scott, the backbone of the Panthers offense in 1992 that went to the 2nd round of the 4-A state playoffs, served as an assistant coach for the Shelby Golden Lions. At Carter-Finley Stadium, Shelby earned its 4th consecutive 2-AA state championship, defeating Jacksonville Northside 28-6.

After graduating from Orange, Scott became a I-AA All-American running back for Appalachian State. For two seasons, he shared the backfield with quarterback Scott Satterfield, who graduated from Orange in 1991.

Coincidentally enough, Satterfield also earned a coaching championship on Saturday. Satterfield, now the head coach at Appalachian State, earned its second consecutive Camillia Bowl Championship, holding off Toledo 31-28 in Montgomery, Alabama.

App State reached 10 victories for the second straight year and became the first FBS team to win two bowl games in its first two years of eligibility. Last season, it overcame a 24-7 deficit to beat Ohio 31-29 on a last-second field goal from Zach Matics.

Hillsboroughsports.com has added radio coverage of Cedar Ridge boys and girls basketball games to its coverage.

Because of the generosity of sponsors like Carolina Hilltopper Lacrosse, the Deer Pushers Association of America, Handy Andy’s, and Carden’s Body and Paint Shop, coverage of Cedar Ridge sports will now be carried on HillsboroughSports.com. This will extend to spring sports, as well as to next football season.

In order to listen to Cedar Ridge sports, simply go to http://www.spreaker.com/user/cedarridge. Not only can you hear the broadcasts live, but they’re available on demand to hear the moments you want to experience again.

HillsboroughSports.com’s focus is to cover high school sports in an updated, comprehensive fashion featuring all athletes in all fields, regardless of season. The addition of the Cedar Ridge Network will continue that purpose well into the future.

Kevin Anzenberger will serve as the play-by-play man for Cedar Ridge basketball, baseball, lacrosse and softball games for the future. The website will broadcast as many games as possible as staffing allows, starting with Friday’s doubleheader against Southern Durham at CRHS Gymnasium.

In order to inquire about sponsoring Cedar Ridge broadcasts, email Jeff Hamlin at hamlin37@hotmail.com.

By Alexandria Hopkins

The holidays are here, and a great present has been presented to the Panther’s wrestling team; Orange winning against Northwood High School in last night’s wrestling match.
In a considerably short dual, only lasting about thirty minutes from it’s start at 6 PM, Panthers wrestling won 69 – 9 against the Chargers in a game that served easy for Coach Bobby Shriner and his team.

However, while playing a fair match, the game itself became burtal, with many of Northwood’s kids holding a posisiton for a longer amount of time than needed and keeping their match going longer than possibily needed too.

Jason Amy, wresling coach and Physical Education teacher for Northwood, said that a game like this will not hurt their previous worth toward the Panthers, and they are staying quite optimistic about future outings.
“With injuries mounting and many kids out with sickness Northwood was unable to fill a complete team for our match. Last year we were a one point difference between the Northwood and Orange. We will be excited to have the opportunity later to compete at full strength next year!”
Still, Orange was able to give their all in that night’s game Using teamwork and the guidance of Coach Shriner and his assistant Coaches, wrestlers like Brandon Hensey, Avery Jenkins, Jamar Dons, and Luke Riley still outshined amongst the rest of the forefits of other players. Players served and scored amongst takedowns, near falls and a few reversals to help the team win their individual matches. Not only did families of the members cheer on, but the rest of the team themsleves gave their absolute support from the bleachers, bringing all the noise in the big gymnansium in consideration next to a quiet audience.
Coach Shriner says that last night’s game was more than worth it, and even with all the forfits, were still glad to be a part of the night.
“Last night, the other team had multiple forfeits, so it made it a little easier for us. And I thought the guys on the team wrestled well next to some tough guys, anf they lost two matches, which was a bummer, but altight in the end. Like anything, we prepare for every match like it’s the same, and in the end it just all works out.”
The Orange wrestling team will be playing their next match at Eastern Alamance High School, starting Saturday afternoon at 5.

The Red Wolves face Southern Durham on Friday night at 7:30.

Cedar Ridge Boys Basketball Coach Clay Jones Talks Northern Vance Win

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Cedar Ridge’s Dmonte Kinney Discusses Game-Winning Shot vs. Northern Vance

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Dmonte Kinney wasn’t sure his first game-winning three-pointer was going to go in. He hadn’t made a trey all night.

But he found the right time to be the hero.

Trailing 36-34 with :36 remaining, Kinney scored the game-winning basket after an offensive rebound from B.J. Freeman as Cedar Ridge held off Northern Vance 39-36 on Tuesday night at Red Wolves Gymnasium.

Sophomore Terrence Crawford led the Red Wolves with eleven in a defensive struggle. Northern Vance (5-4, 1-1) was held to just 14 points in the first half.

Leading 32-26 going into the fourth quarter, Cedar Ridge couldn’t find the basket in the fourth quarter until the time was right. Leading up to Kinney’s game-winning shot, the Red Wolves only had four points in the opening seven minutes.

Nonetheless, Cedar Ridge earned is now 4-3 overall, 1-1 in Big 8 play. That looks a lot better than last year’s 0-4 in the conference play with a senior-laden team featuring Payton Pappas, the school’s all-time leading scorer.

“We focused tonight on trying to get off to a better start and get a win,” said Cedar Ridge Coach Clay Jones. “We’ve started out playing a lot of games at home. You have to win at home in this conference.”

Kinney finished with seven points, while Khalil Barnett was held to seven.

Jones continues to employ a three-guard lineup, even though none of the backcourt regulars are seniors. Freshman Mekai Collins has started every game.

“I don’t know who’s going to show up each night,” said Jones. “We don’t have what a lot of other people have. We’ve got guys who are going to get six, eight, eleven, ten points. Tonight was Dmonte’s night. He’s been a good defensive presence for us.”

Cedar Ridge will have it’s final game of a eight-game homestand to start the season against Southern Durham on Friday night at Red Wolves Gymnasium. The Red Wolves were the only Big 8 team to defeat the Spartans during the regular season last year.

“I hope they’ve forgotten that part,” said Jones.

CEDAR RIDGE 39, NORTHERN VANCE 36

NORTHERN VANCE: Laquad Holden 3, Malik Glasco 4, Noah Seward 5, Kenton Pettaway 1, Kalin Jackson 4, Jacolby Williamson 4, Thomas Townes 6, Zion Copeland 6, Deiondre Palmer 3.

CEDAR RIDGE: Dmonte Kinney 7, Khalil Barnett 7, Terrence Crawford 11, Tahjai Hill-Wells 4, Mekai Collins 6, Colby Cashaw 2, B.J. Freeman 2.

When your offense starts sluggish coming off a rivalry game, sometimes just having Connor Crabtree is enough.

Orange labored through a lethargic opening  against Southern Alamance on Tuesday night at Jim King Gymnasium, scoring just one field goal in the opening six minutes. After Southern’s Harrison Cochran’s backdoor lay-in put the Patriots ahead 7-6, Crabtree simply took the game over.

He went on a personal 9-0 run bridging the opening quarters, finished with 29 and Orange (5-3) defeated Southern Alamance 71-55.

Fellow senior Logan Vosburg added 14 points, while freshman  Mitch Portman also added 14, 13 in the 2nd half.

Orange’s defense held the Patriots (2-6) to nine points in the second quarter and never led by less than ten points in the second half.

Kyle Forbes led the Patriots with 19 points, including four 3-pointers. Harrison Cochran added 15.

“It took a while for us to get into a flow on offense tonight,” said Orange Coach Greg Motley. “We didn’t anticipate that. We feel that’s one of our strong points. At least it has so far this season. So we struggled to get into a groove.”

Orange was aided at the beginning of the second quarter after a bizarre technical foul against SAHS. Patriots backup center Lewis Drake was cited for wearing a different colored t-shirt underneath his red jersey. That led to Crabtree scoring both technical free throws, then canned a 15-footer on the subsequent possession.

At one point, Motley inserted the Football Four off the bench: Ryan Sellers, Morgan Pashcal. Kendall Whitted and Eli Haithcock, all of whom joined the team two weeks ago after Orange’s football season ended. Sellers had a season-high seven points of the bench.

While Orange still prides itself on its transition game, the one thing that’s missing this year is a point guard that can lead the break. Crabtree has triggered almost all of Orange’s transition opportunities, which Motley doesn’t mind. He just prefers Crabtree as a finisher.

“We’ve looked at our freshman guards (Portman and Joey McMillian) to try to fill that role,” said Motley. “It’s a work in progress.”

Orange will return to action against East Chapel Hill on Wednesday night, the team they defeated for its first win of the season 57-55 on November 29th.

“We have to enjoy this one quickly,” said Motley. “It’s a tough one tomorrow.”

ORANGE 71, SOUTHERN ALAMANCE 55

SOUTHERN ALAMANCE: Kyle Forbes 19, Jsi Hatfield 5, Harrison Cochran 15, Chandler Smith 7, Mikol Slade 2, Grant Sharpe 2, Lewis Drake 5.

ORANGE: Mitch Portman 14, Connor Crabtree 29, Logan Vosburg 14, Eli Haithcock 2, Morgan Paschal 1, Ryan Sellers 7, Matt Athenton 2, Treshon Richardson 2.

Even without placing a starter in double figures, the Orange girls basketball team found a way to start 6-0 for the first time in eight years.

Sophomore Lauren Cates came off the bench to score 16 points, including four three-pointers, while Icez Barnett added a dozen as the Panthers defeated Southern Alamance 52-39 on Tuesday night at Jim King Gymnasium.

Orange is 6-0 for the first time since the 2008-09 season, when they played in the 2A/1A Mid State Conference.

The Panthers never trailed against the Patriots (1-5), but it was a battle. Trailing by 14 early in the third quarter, Southern got consecutive field goals from Meghan Deese to narrow their deficit to 34-29 going into the fourth quarter. The Patriots made their charge with four reserves on the floor, including point guard Gracie Williams, who went the rest of the way running the offense.

Orange started the fourth quarter with consecutive three-pointers from Cates to push the advantage up to 40-29.

Orange’s 33 bench points were a season high.

“We have more scorers on this team than any other I’ve had,” said Orange coach B.J. Condron. “I think we played tentative at times tonight. I’d like to see us play a little better than we did at times tonight.”

Kaylen Campbell, Orange’s leading scorer, opened the game with a three-pointer that banked in off the right win. Campbell finished with nine, the first time all year she’s been held under double figures.

It was the second time in three weeks the Panthers defeated the Patriots. Orange won 47-3o in Graham on November 30.

Tuesday’s contest was the first in a span of three games in four days. On Wednesday night, the Panthers travel to East Chapel Hill. Tipoff is at 5:30. Orange defeated East Chapel Hill 58-51 on November 29. After a day off Thursday, Orange returns to Big 8 Conference action on Friday with a home game against Northern Vance. The Vikings fell to Cedar Ridge on Tuesday 56-32.

ORANGE 52, SOUTHERN ALAMANCE 39

SOUTHERN ALAMANCE: Allysa Jacobson 2, Eden Deanhardt 3, Jenna Haugle 17, Caroline Cousey 4, Gracie Williams 4, Cheyenne Cox 2, Meghan Deese 7.

ORANGE: Kaylen Campbell 9, Jazlyn Watson 8, Mia Davidson 2, Bethlyn Early 2, Janea Myers 3, Icez Barnett 12, Lauren Cates 16.

Joey McMullin scored 15 points, including 4-of-8 shooting from 3-point range, as Orange held off Cedar Ridge 60-59 on Saturday at Red Wolves Gymnasium.

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McMullin hit 5-of-7 from three point range as the Panthers edged the Red Wolves 60-59 on Saturday