In another tight battle between two archivals, it was Orange’s leading scorer from last year that paved the way to a win in the opening leg of the Rosewood Wealth Management Cup.
Yurem Tapia Mendez scored on two penalty kicks, including the game-winner in the 43rd minute, to push Orange past Cedar Ridge 2-0 at Panther Soccer Field on Monday night.
The Rosewood Wealth Management Cup is a new competition between Orange and Cedar Ridge men’s soccer that will award a trophy at the end of the second matchup between the Panthers and the Red Wolves on October 8 at Red Wolves Stadium. It’s an aggregate goals competition with the tiebreaker being most road goals, similar to how knockout rounds are contested in the UEFA Champions League every winter. Orange will go into the second game on October 8 with a 2-0 lead.
The Rosewood Wealth Management Cup is presented by Rosewood Wealth Management, the new parent company of Hillsboroughsports.com.
Orange junior goalkeeper Hector Garrido came away with his fifth clean sheet of the season and his second in a row. Last Wednesday, Garrido made a save on a penalty kick in the final minute of regulation as the Panthers held on to defeat Southeast Alamance 1-0.
“You have to give Cedar Ridge a lot of credit,” said Orange head coach Palmer Bowman. “They really were well coached and came out ready to play. They had some good set pieces that caught us off guard. You have to give them credit for that.”
Red Wolves senior goalkeeper Erik Galunas made four saves in the first half, starting with a shot from Orange’s Brendan McDonald that rolled along the right post which Galunas brushed away over the end line.
The Panthers best chance in the opening half came in the 23rd minute when Johnson made a run and fired from 19 yards, which was blocked. The ball ricocheted to McDonald, who got off a line drive that Galunas knocked down for a sprawling save.
Orange (6-4, 1-0 in the Big Seven Conference) controlled possession in the first half with Garrido making just one save in the first 40 minutes.
The sequence that started the opening penalty kick started with a dropkick from Garrido from the penalty box. John Gomez Tercero, who scored the game-winning goal against Southeast Alamance, won the ball off a rebound and played it to Ajali Carter. Tercero got the ball back on a give-and-go and was fouled in the box.
Mendez, who scored 19 goals last season, rolled in the game-winning goal with 37:56 remaining in the second half in the lower right corner.
“I thought both of the penalty calls were fair,” said Cedar Ridge head coach Emiliano Chirigliano. “The first penalty our player took out their player. The second one scraped him, but enough contact was made.”
With 34:13 remaining in regulation, it appeared that Cedar Ridge had found an equaliser off a free kick. Noah Koehler fired a pass that deflected off of Simon Salazar’s back and into the net. But the official’s assistant on the near sidelined ruled that Salazar was offside, nullifying the goal.
The Red Wolves had another opportunity off a corner kick with 16:53 remaining.Koehler passed it to Salazar, whose rocket from 19 yards just inched over the crossbar.
With 6:29 remaining in regulation, Mendez worked the ball in deep and was brushed on the leg, leading to another penalty. This time Mendez fired into the left corner for his second goal of the night. It was the sixth multi-goal game of his carer after he had two hat tricks last season.
Cedar Ridge falls to 4-4 overall, 0-1 in the Big 7. The Red Wolves will host Seaforth on Wednesday at Red Wolves Stadium.
Orange returns to action against Hillside in Durham on Friday in a non conference game.
