2024-08-24 10:45:02
The Richmond Senior High School Raider Soccer Team will not have long to marinate on last Thursday’s 3-1 loss to the Porter Ridge Pirates last Thursday.
Despite falling to 1-2 on the season, the Raiders now turn their attention to Rolesville, who they face in the opening game of the North Carolina Coaches Association Kickoff Classic.
“I told them at halftime, ‘We have got to start eliminating those mistakes.’ If we had, then we would have walked out of here and it could have been 2-2, 2-1 or 1-1, who knows? I can see us getting better. I can see we’re starting to play more as a unit. We’re starting to understand the concepts. Each of these games, even though they’re losses and we’re not on the winning side, we’re still getting better,” RSHS coach Chris Larsen said.
The Pirates quickly capitalized on a few out of position Raiders to pick up their first score, then capitalized on the same mistake just before halftime to make it 2-0 just before the break. The Raiders made it a game midway through the second period, after Patrick Smith deflected a Gonzalo Gonzales free kick into the net, pulling them within a goal, but that was as close as they would get last Thursday.
“It’s was a diagonal, near-post run that he got a touch or a flick on it. That little flick was able to beat the keeper and go in the side net. That was Pat’s first goal for us. I could see the excitement in his face. The guys were really pulling for him, and that got us back in the ballgame. For him, hopefully that is going to give him a little bit of confidence moving forward,” Larsen said.
With the home crowd, momentum seemed to be in Richmond’s favor, but Porter Ridge sealed the victory after Anton Blotskyi found a seem on the sideline, and cut the ball up the field until finding the back of Richmond’s net.
“We had a tough game [Wednesday] night, so we were about six guys down [Thursday]. We had to battle through … I was proud of the effort. It was nice. It was the first goal of the year for [Blotskyi]. He’s a sophomore. That helped. We needed something because we came up kind of lame halfway through the second half,” Porter Ridge coach Ron Ladimir said.
With the win, Porter Ridge improves to 4-1 while Richmond drops to 1-2 with last Monday’s game canceled due to rain. This Monday, the Raiders head on the road to face St. Pauls, then host East Mecklenburg Wednesday. Kickoff for both games is set for 7 p.m.
