Midway through the Big 7 Conference men’s soccer race, the championship is very much up for grabs.
Five days after assisting on the game-winning goal at Durham School of the Arts, Cedar Ridge junior Julian Ashton scored two goals as the Red Wolves scored a season-high six goals in a 6-3 win at South Granville in Creedmoor on Monday night. Ashton scored the first goal of his varsity career as the Red Wolves ended a three-game road swing with a 2-0-1 record.
Last week at Durham School of the Arts, Ashton had an assist on the game-winning goal scored by Tyler Baker in overtime as the Red Wolves defeated the Bulldogs 3-1 in overtime.
Cedar Ridge has its first winning streak of the season and is now 6-5-1 overall, 2-2-1 in the Big 7. After a night of upsets across the area, the Red Wolves are one game in the loss column behind Orange and Carrboro for first place.
Tied 3-3 at the end of the first half, the Red Wolves scored three unanswered goals to take the victory.
Freshman Reece Finnegan, the younger brother of former Cedar Ridge pitcher Quinn Finnegan, registered the first goal of his varsity career and also assisted on two goals. Noah Koehler notched a goal for the second straight game. Against DSA, Koehler added an insurance goal in overtime from 35 yards away on a gorgeous free kick.
Gavin Ryan also scored for the Red Wolves. Senior goalkeeper Erik Galunas earned his sixth victory of the season in net, making a season-high 18 saves for the victory.
Luke Atkinson added an assist for Cedar Ridge.
The Red Wolves return home to face Orange on Wednesday night. It will be the second leg of the Rosewood Wealth Management Cup, the inaugural competition between Cedar Ridge and Orange men’s soccer. The Panthers won the opening leg 2-0 on September 15 and will take a 2-goal lead into the aggregate goal competition.
Seaforth 2, Orange 1:
Already saddled with two conference losses, Seaforth may have had its hopes of winning the Big 7 Conference championship on the line against Orange in Hillsborough on Monday night. The Hawks responded by ending the Panthers six-game winning streak.
Colin Atkinson rolled a ball into the lower left corner of the net with 32:24 remaining in regulation for the game-winning goal as the Hawks held on to beat Orange 2-1. The Hawks opened the scoring with 6:46 remaining in the first half when Jack Baliff chipped in a short shot past Orange goalkeeper Hector Garrido. Moments earlier, Garrido blocked a shot by Zane McMahon on a breakaway.
Orange (10-5, 4-1) is now tied with Carrboro in the loss column for first place in the Central Conference.
The Panthers made it interesting when senior Dallas Johnson ended a flurry by chipping in a ball past Seaforth goalkeeper Abel Williams with 14:26 remaining in regulation to cut the Hawks’ lead to 2-1. Yurem Tapia Mendez assisted on the goal that was scored off a corner kick.
“They had a well placed shot on the second goal,” said Orange coach Palmer Bowman. “We gave them the space and we didn’t close on it.”
Orange dominated possession for the remainder of regulation, but the closest they could get to an equalizer was when John Gomez notched a header off a cross that was captured by Williams.
When asked whether it was the most physical game his team has played this year, Bowman didn’t hesitate to answer.
“It was,” Bowman said. “And we anticipated that. We knew Seaforth was a good team. We just didn’t bring our A game and it showed. They took it to us in the end.”
With seven conference games remaining, Orange is in a fight to earn its first conference championship in the 38-year history of the program.
“Every game is big and I think we’ve seen that,” Bowman said.
