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Led by Peyton Pappas and Jacob Thomas, the Cedar Ridge boys basketball team heads to Roxboro tonight 2-0.

The Red Wolves will face the Person Rockets, its only game this week. CRHS will take Thanksgiving break off, then hit the ground running with three games over four days next week. They’ll host South Granville on Tuesday, December 1st. Then they’ll travel to Southern Alamance, starting with a trip to Mebane on Wednesday. Following a night off on Thursday, the Red Wolves will travel to Cummings.

On Friday night, Cedar Ridge defeated Bartlett Yancey 66-57 in Yanceyville. After scoring 25 points in the season opener against Carrboro, Pappas led the Red Wolves again with 29. Thomas, a transfer from Chapel Hill who had 18 against the Jaguars, registered 21 against the Buccaneers.

We’ll have coverage of Wednesday’s game against Southern Alamance here on Hillsboroughsports.com.

Predictably, heavy rain came on Thursday morning. Predictably, Southern Durham officials moved Friday’s 3-AA state playoff game between Orange and Southern Durham. But it won’t be played at North Carolina Central’s O’Kelly-Riddick Stadium.

Instead, the game has been shifted to Durham County Memorial Stadium, the longtime home of the Northern Durham Knights, which also has a field turf surface as opposed to natural grass.

Southern defeated Northern 36-13 at Durham County Stadium on September 18th. The last time Orange played at DCS, they defeated Northern 18-0 on August 29, 2014.

Our coverage on HillsboroughSports.com starts at 7:20. Join us then.

Here’s what anyone knows for sure about Orange and Southern Durham playing football on Friday night. The game will be in the 2nd round of the 3-AA state playoffs.

You might be asking where will it be played? If you think the answer is Southern Durham High School, you may be wrong.

Last week, Southern moved its first round game with Chapel Hill High School to North Carolina Central University’s O Kelly-Riddick Stadium. Spartan athletic officials cited poor conditions at its own home field for the move.

Which leads us to this week. There’s a chance of thunderstorms Thursday.

The North Carolina High School Athletic Association allows for the host school in the state playoffs to determine where a game will be played. Southern is the higher seed. As of Wednesday night, Orange Coach Pat Moser was unsure where Friday’s game will take place.

We’ll have updates on this situation Thursday. Until then, here’s Coach Moser discussing the rematch with the Spartans.

Orange-Southern Durham Round 2

Once again, it’s Orange vs. Southern Durham in the 3-AA State Playoffs. Panthers head coach Pat Moser talks about facing the Spartans again.

It’s now an annual ritual for Orange basketbal coach Greg Motley to schedule a full slate, only to have it delayed due to the Panther football team making a deep run in the state playoffs. That will be the case again this year.

The hardwood Panthers were supposed to start its season on Thursday night at home against Northern Durham. That game has been postponed, along with several others. The Orange boys team is now scheduled to starts its season on December 3rd in Raleigh against Sanderson.

However, the Orange girls team will play on Thursday against Northern at home.

While the season hasn’t started yet, Motley already has had to deal with a major setback. To be exact, it happened on September 23rd, when point guard Eryk Brandon-Dean suffered a torn ACL playing football against Southern Durham.

That injury not only ended Brandon-Dean’s football season, but his basketball season, as well. Brandon-Dean has been Orange’s starting point guard for the past two years, often being the centerpiece of a high octane offense that was among the highest scoring in the Big 8 Confernece.

Now, Orange will have to adjust.

Coach Motley discusses the changes and the preparations for the season opener in the video below.

Orange Boys Basketball to Start Season December 3rd

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“It’s never easy, is it?” Cedar Ridge Boys Basketball Coach Clay Jones muttered to an assistant in the visitors locker room after meeting with his team.

Jones had reason to be happy and surly all at once. His Red Wolves had just defeated Carrboro 70-66 in the season opener. Senior Peyton Pappas scored 25 points, including a clutch 17-foot jumper with 2:06 remaining in a situation that was purely Pappas. Carrboro point guard Cole Phillips had just picked up his 4th foul seconds earlier, something Pappas was well aware of when he drove on Phillips and canned the jumper. There was nothing Phillips could do about it if he wanted to stay in the game.

On the other hand, Cedar Ridge blew a 14-point halftime lead. The Red Wolves were held to six points in the third quarter, forcing Jones to spend two full time outs. When his starters didn’t respond defensively during a 12-4 Carrboro run that tied the game at 49-49, he benched all of them at once for the final 1:39 of the third quarter.

It was a move reminiscent of Dean Smith, which was only fitting. Former UNC All-American Eric Montross was seated in the top row of the gym, watching his son Andrew play for Carrboro (he finished with seven points and 14 rebounds).

“I told the guys at halftime don’t be comfortable, and I think we were,” said Jones. “We’ve got some veteran guys but we’ve got some new guys who have got to learn how to play with a lead. We had some adversity tonight, but I’m pleased with a nonconference win at any time.”

Among the newest guys who made an impact on Tuesday night was Jacob Thomas, a transfer from Chapel Hill High. Thomas registered 18 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field and eight rebounds.

Carrboro opened the fourth quarter with a 5-0 run, all from guard Zack Anderson to take a 54-49 lead. Pappas and Thomas responded with consecutive field goals to tie at 54.

Carrboro Brandon Richardson scored on a lay-in and was fouled by Jonathan Hall with 2:19 remaining. Richardson would hit the subsequent free throw to tie the game at 62.

That’s when Pappas scored his shot over Phillips. After Phillips was called for traveling, Thomas stuck a baseline jumper off an assist from Pappas to give Cedar Ridge a 66-62 lead. Pappas and Khalil Barnett both hit 2-shot free throws to carry the Red Wolves to the win.

Surprisingly, the Montross family carries big bodies across its family genes (yes, that’s sarcasm). It was something Cedar Ridge center Jonathan Hall knew when he faced Andrew Montross, who isn’t as tall as his 7-foot father, but is huskier. Nontheless, Hall bodied up against Montross and came away with 11 rebounds.

“I told John he did a good job against Montross,” said Jones. “We’ve got to get other guys to do that. He’s a hard worker defensively. Montross did a good job pulling John away from the basket and driving on him. Our help defense wasn’t present tonight, unfortunately.”

Barnett and Shane Evans finished with eight points. Pappas also had six assists. The Red Wolves host Bartlett Yancey on Friday night in Hillsborough.

Carrie Davis alone couldn’t keep the Cedar Ridge girls basketball team afloat in its season opener.

Carrboro’s Grace Nanney scored 17 points while Deja Tucker added 16 as the Jaguars defeated the Red Wolves 44-33 in each team’s season opener on Tuesday night.

Davis had 19, but she was the only Red Wolf in double figures. Kaylee Herbst had six for Cedar Ridge, who shot only 29% from the field.

Davis shot 6-of-11 from the field and knocked down both of Cedar Ridge’s 3-pointers.

Cedar Ridge carried a 20-14 lead into halftime after Davis canned a three-pointer off a feed from Sydney Harrison. Carrboro was held to five points in the second quarter. Nanney was 0-9 from the field in the first half, but she found her range when it mattered.

Carrboro started the second half on a 16-3 run, where Nanney scored the first six points of the half for the Jaguars, while Tucker scored the following seven. Cedar Ridge missed all five of its 3-pointers in the third quarter and trailed 31-27 going into the fourth quarter.

Davis hit a 3-pointer in the opening minute of the fourth quarter, but it was the only field goal of the fourth quarter for CRHS.

Cedar Ridge will face Bartlett Yancy on Friday in hopes of getting its first win of the season.

Orange head coach Pat Moser discusses the Panthers facing Northwood in the 1st round of the 3-AA state playoffs on Friday night in Hillsborough. Our coverage starts at 7:25 here on HillsboroughSports.com.

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There’s supposed to be an aura of the unknown for teams that make the high school football playoffs.

The vast majority of the time, teams get a new opponent from a different conference in a town several counties away.

For teams in the Big 8 Conference, that’s not the case this year. The first two rounds will be a family affair.

Co-Big 8 Champion Orange, seeded sixth, will face Northwood on Friday night in Hillsborough. The winner faces Co-Big 8 Champion Southern Durham, the third seed, against Chapel Hill.

Oddly enough, it was the Tigers who brought calm, order and extra sleep for three local athletic directors on the last night of the regular season. Chapel Hill upset Northwood 19-17 in Pittsboro, ruining the Chargers chances of tying Southern Durham and Orange for a share of the Big 8 Championship.

If Northwood had won, Orange, Southern and Northwood would have had to draw for seeding in the Big 8. The athletic directors at all three schools had already organized a meeting at an IHOP in Durham Saturday morning in advance.

It never got that far.

Instead, Northwood’s loss led to the Spartans taking the top seed. Southern defeated Orange on September 24th to earn the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Orange defeated Northwood 14-0 on October 1, the first time the Chargers were shut out since 2004. It was played on a Thursday night in advance of Hurricane Joaquin, but that didn’t keep the rain away. The game was played in a downpour. The field was so entrenched with water in the first quarter, it was impossible to see the yard numbers from the press box. The turn left Chargers running back Montel Goods unable to cut back on running plays designed for him to do just that.

As fate would have it, the previous time Northwood was shut out was in 2004 by the Graham Red Devils—coached by Pat Moser, who now coaches Orange.

Drew Lemaster and Alex Long scored Orange’s touchdowns, while the defense held Goods to 53 yards, a season low. Goods came into the game with three consecutive 200-yard rushing efforts.

For Southern Durham, hosting Chapel Hill in the state playoffs is becoming an annual tradition. It’s the fourth time in nine years the Spartans have hosted the Tigers in the playoffs.

The two teams met in the 3rd round of the 2007 4-A playoffs, which Southern won 19-14. Last year, Chapel Hill stunned the Spartans 39-28, ending Southern’s hopes of repeating as 3-AA state champions. It was also the final game for Southern quarterback Kendall Hinton, now at Wake Forest.

We’ll have coverage of Orange-Northwood Friday night at 7:30 here on Hillsboroughsports.com. Listen in.

Cedar Ridge football looks to make state playoffs against Northern Vance on Friday night. Seniors Peyton Pappas, Jonathan Hall and Jeremy Cates discuss what it would mean to make the postseason for the first time since 2010.

Peyton Pappas, Jonathan Hall and Jeremy Cates Look to Make Playoffs vs. N. Vance

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When a high school football team starts its season every August, they hope to be successful.

Of course, that’s a relative term. For schools accustomed to winning, nothing less than a conference championship will do. Orange High has already gained a share of the Big 8 Championship.

That started with a solid foundation which was created in 2008, when Pat Moser was hired as head coach. After several disappointing seasons, Moser now has led the Panthers to four consecutive double-digit win seasons, a first in school history.

Cedar Ridge started this season thinking they would have a big name coach in its corner. Steve Johnson hired to replace Clay Jones, who wanted to focus on his duties as head basketball coach at CRHS.

Johnson fit the bill of a coach that could revive Cedar Ridge football, which hasn’t made the playoffs since reaching the 2-AA Eastern Regional Championship Game in 2010. He had won two state championships at Burlington Cummings, and had been an assistant for three others.

The hiring mirrored what Moser’s hiring at Orange in 2008. Both had coached previously in Alamance County, both had won state championships at their respective schools (Moser at Graham, Johnson at Cummings) and both resigned after health concerns.

Moser had time to recover. Evidently, Johnson did not.

Johnson suffers from Guillain-Barre Syndrome, which causes fatigue and numbness. He suffered a setback just a few days in August workouts that sources close to the team remain tight-lipped about. Johnson abruptly turned the head coaching reigns over to offensive coordinator Scott Loosemoore. Weeks went by without the team even hearing from Johnson until he resigned in mid-September. He never coached a game at Cedar Ridge.

The hopes for building a new foundation had not only crumbled, but the Red Wolves were left scrambling to keep what they already had in place.

Loosemore was the third Red Wolves football coach in the last three years. A former head coach at Eastern Guilford and assistant at Elon and North Carolina A&T, Loosemore isn’t clear if he will get the permanent job.

During the 2000s, Cedar Ridge was the epitome of coaching stability. Longtime Stanford Middle School football coach Lou Geary built the program from the ground up starting in 2002. Eight years later, they played for the 2-AA Eastern Regional Championship under Joe Kilby.

It’s been particularly difficult for varsity players like quarterback Peyton Pappas, who had to work under three different coaches in three years.

Now, the Red Wolves are looking for a new path. Again. Exactly who will take them there is anyone’s guess.

For now, Cedar Ridge can only focus on Friday night when they face Northern Vance. A win will put their mark at 5-6, which should be good enough for a birth in the 3-A playoffs.

After the Vikings started the Big 8 portion of its schedule with a 35-34 victory over Oxford Webb, they’ve lost four straight.

By the time 2016 rolls around, Cedar Ridge will likely have to start over again. Pappas, Marquez Hunter (out for the Northern Vance game), Dahnte Scott, Lee Fields, Grady Pritchard and Tyreq Jennings are all seniors.

That’s all in the future. Cedar Ridge has a chance to start putting its new foundation in place on Friday night, and that starts with making the playoffs.