Month: August 2018

Photo by Will Okun 

The Orange Men’s Soccer team will go into the Labor Day weekend on a three-game winning streak.

Drew Jagentenfl scored a goal and two assists while senior Levi Anderson added a goal and an assist as Orange defeated Person 4-0 on Thursday night at Orange Soccer Park. Jo Sanchez and junior Brandon Guzman also notched goals for the Panthers, who improve to 3-2-1 on the season.

Anderson also had an assist for the Panthers, who will host Riverside on Tuesday night at 6:30. The Panthers fired 23 shots on net in the game and 32 shots overall. Anderson finished with seven shots, while Jagentenfl, sophomore Jason Franklin and Rohan Kasthrui each had four shots.

Goalkeeper Francisco McKinley earned the win in net.

On Tuesday night, Orange defeated Eastern Alamance 4-2. Jagentenfl, Sanchez, Anderson and R.J. Pherribo all scored for Orange, while sophomore Leif Mahaney, Luke Phillips, Sebastian Rios and Kasthrui all had assists.

Orange will play its Big 8 Conference opener against East Chapel Hill at Orange on Wednesday night.

VOLLEYBALL

In other events from Thursday night, the Orange volleyball team suffered a 3-1 loss to Northwood in Pittsboro. The Panthers are now 6-3 overall, 2-2 in the Big 8 Conference. Next week, Orange will have two home matches, starting with power Chapel Hill on Tuesday. The Tigers are tied for 1st in the Big 8 with East Chapel Hill at 4-0. On Thursday, Orange hosts Southern Durham.

Meanwhile, the Northern Durham volleyball team defeated Cedar Ridge 3-1 at Poe Gymtorium in Durham. The Red Wolves, who have dropped five straight, are now 2-6 overall, 0-4 in the Big 8 Conference.

Cedar Ridge got off to a good start in winning the first set 25-23. Northern captured the final three sets 25-15, 25-18 and 25-15. Senior Sarah McCuiston led the Red Wolves with 12 kills, two assists and five digs. Junior Emma Downing had eight kills and one block. Senior Juliann De Jesus had six kills, two blocks. Senior Macy Henry led Cedar Ridge with 25 assists. Senior libero Rachel Tucker had 12 digs. Junior Celeste Pasley finished with four kills.

The Red Wolves will play three matches next week. They host East Chapel Hill on Tuesday night, followed by a nonconference home match against Jordan of the Triangle 6 Conference on Wednesday. The Red Wolves travel to Hillside on Thursday.

WOMEN’S TENNIS

Coming off a disappointing loss to Cedar Ridge on Wednesday, the Orange Women’s Tennis team bounced back to finish the week with a 5-4 victory over South Granville at Panther Tennis Courts. Orange, which doesn’t have a senior on the team, earned wins from freshman Jera Hargove at #1 singles, Natalie Marochak at #3, Sydney Allison at #5 and Gaylaw Eh at #6 singles. Allison and Eh earned Orange’s 3rd team match win of the season with a doubles victory. Orange, which is 1-2 in the Big 8 Conference, ended the week 2-1 after a win on Monday over Hillside. Orange will continue the season on Tuesday at Northwood.

Meanwhile, Cedar Ridge will try to capitalize on the momentum of the Orange victory when they travel to Northern Durham on Tuesday. The Red Wolves will host East Chapel Hill on Thursday.

This week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is sophomore wingback Eh Kaw Hso. Just two years ago, Hso started playing soccer in middle school to lose weight. Now, he’s a starter for the Cedar Ridge Men’s Soccer team. This week, Cedar Ridge defeated Bartlett Yancey and Southern Alamance for its third consecutive win. When he isn’t playing soccer, Hso volunteers during the summer at Main Event Staples in Chapel Hill, where he helps with kids and animals. Next week, Cedar Ridge starts Big 8 Conference play against Chapel Hill, the defending NCHSAA 3A State Champions. 

Entering its season opener on Wednesday night, the Orange junior varsity football team hadn’t lost a game in over three years.

The streak is still alive…barely.

Orange defeated Athens Drive 13-12 at Auman Stadium in the first of ten games this season for the Panthers. The Jaguars had a chance to win with just 1:45 remaining after scoring a touchdown. Athens went for a 2-point conversion on the point after, but Orange held them out of the end zone by roughly 18 inches.

Afterwards, Zahmir Watkins, Jared Weaver and Curtis Ward discussed the Panthers 1st win of the season on the gridiron.

Frank Orellana’s name wasn’t in the box score for Cedar Ridge’s win on Tuesday night, but it should have been.

Orellana was fouled three times in the penalty box in the first half for the Red Wolves. Each time, Gavin Hughes scored on a penalty kick. Hughes wound up with a hat trick in the first half and Cedar Ridge defeated Southern Alamance 3-1 at Red Wolves Stadium.

It was Cedar Ridge’s third consecutive win. The Red Wolves defeated Wilson Hunt 3-1 on Saturday at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary. On Tuesday night, Cedar Ridge scored six goals in the second half to defeat Bartlett Yancey 6-1 in Yanceyville.

“Frankie had great balls play to him from the midfield,” said Cedar Ridge Coach Chris Walker, whose team is now 3-3-1. “Frank did a great job controlling the ball and made a couple of plays coming in.”

Hughes opened the scoring goal on a penalty in the sixth minute after Orellana was tripped by Southern Alamance’s goalkeeper.

“The guys got focused,” said Cedar Ridge Coach Chris Walker. “They came in early today and was focused. For several games during the three losses, we had sporadic play. Last night, it carried over into tonight. That’s what we need.”

Southern Alamance’s Lucas Khorosov nearly evened the match in the 14th minute after taking a pass across the box from Dylan Myers, but Cedar Ridge goalkeeper Peter Molmar dived on the ball from the near post. Two minutes later, South Alamance’s Jose Martinez ran back on a quick counter following a Cedar Ridge corner, but his blast from 25 yards went wide.

In the 17th minute, Martinez even the match after he chipped in a cross in from Braden Mackey inside the near post.

Cedar Ridge had a free kick from 23 yards with 17:15 remaining in the first half, but Brandon Garcia’s placed the shot high.

The Red Wolves broke through for the go-ahead goal when Eduardo Garcia fed an entry pass to Orellana. It led to Orellana sending A pretty through ball to Reese Weaver, who was tripped in the box by Southern Alamance’s Cam Honeycutt. Hughes tucked the penalty kick into the left corner with 16:24 remaining in the first half to put the Red Wolves back in front.

On the subsequent kickoff, Weaver stole a pass between the centerbacks and charged in on a breakaway, but his shot from 15 yards rattled off the bottom of the crossbar. The Red Wolves nearly added when Eh Tah played a gorgeous through ball to Hughes, whose shot was stopped at the box by Southern Alamance’s Edwin Lopez, who dove on the ball before it could leave Hughes’ right foot.

Cedar Ridge’s Noel Garcia drew another penalty in the box off a throw in from Eduardo Garcia-Sanchez. Hughes notched the hat trick with another goal from the spot with 3:49 remaining to put CRHS ahead 3- 1.

Southern Alamance opened the second half with a free kick from 20 yards, but Loyola’s shot was stopped by a sliding Molmar. With 32:43 remaining, Myers earned a penalty after being brought down in the box, but Molmar stopped the shot diving to his left.

Khorosov blasted a free kick with. 26:34 remaining from 23 yards, but Molmar made another diving save.

With 13:05 remaining, Erickson Thole’s header off a cross from Garcia Sanchez sailed over the net.

The Cedar Ridge’s girls tennis team best performance of the young season couldn’t have come at a better time. On Wednesday, the Red Wolves swept archrival Orange 9-0 at Red Wolves Tennis Courts. It was Cedar Ridge’s first win of the season. Olivia Ward captured her match at #1 singles, while Alana Lutz won at #2 singles. Nora Sauers and Bri Cellini also won in singles action for the Red Wolves, who improve to 1-5. Cedar Ridge has defeated Orange in seven consecutive matches. 

When Kelly Young took over the Orange volleyball program in June, she first noticed how versatile her new team was.

While she didn’t have the biggest team in the Big 8 Conference, Young was impressed in workouts with how her squad could play multiple positions. In no other game this season was that best exemplified than on Tuesday night.

Orange swept Cedar Ridge 3-0 at Red Wolves Gymnasium to improve to 5-2 overall. It was Orange’s fourth straight win over the Red Wolves.

Emma Clements and Libby Jones had seven kills each, while senior Liz LaNier had six kills, two assists and a block. Freshman Lydia Wood and senior Sarah McCuiston paced the Red Wolves with six kills each. Junior Celeste Pasley had four kills.

Orange never trailed in any of the three sets, earning the win on scores of 25-13, 25-14 and 25-16.

“Anyone I put in, they did their job,” said Young. “They wanted to win. They want conference wins. We’ve set some high goals for this team and they’re working for them.”

Cedar Ridge dropped its fourth straight and fell to 2-5, 0-3 in the BIg 8 Conference. The Red Wolves were coming off a three-game road trip that ended with a match last Thursday against Chapel Hill, the two-time defending 3A Eastern Regional Champions.

Orange was coming off a five-set loss against Person in Roxboro on Monday night, an effort that Young was proud of.

“They worked their tails off (against Person),” said Young. “They wanted to win.”

The same can’t be said about Orange’s opening Big 8 match last week, a 3-0 loss to East Chapel Hill.

“We played awful,” said Young. “It wasn’t like one or two people wasn’t on. The majority of us weren’t on. I don’t think we outpsyched ourselves. We just couldn’t get any momentum going. We definitely were not playing our normal play.”

With Clements serving, Orange jumped out to a 6-1 lead to start the second set. During the run, Clements had a kill and an ace. Cedar Ridge narrowed the deficit to 7-6 following an ace from Pasley. Orange pushed their advantage back to 16-12 following a block from LaNier and an Celements kill assisted by Kaitlyn Werden who finished with a team-high 14 assists. Jones wrapped up the set on a kill assisted by Werden.

The third set was the most competitive with Cedar Ridge tying it three times, including at 8-8  after Colby Rabelais scored a kill off an assist from Macy Henry. Orange went on a 6-1 run to take control of the set, which included two kills from Natalia Ruble. The Lady Panthers closed with the final six points to close out the win.

Cedar Ridge’s last win over Orange in volleyball came on September 1, 2016 at Red Wolves’ Gymnasium. It’s a long way from the 2013-2015 under former head coach Charlie Oakley, Cedar Ridge defeated Orange five consecutive times.

Orange will travel to Northwood on Thursday night. Cedar Ridge will journey to Poe Gymtorium to face Northern Durham on Thursday. Northwood and Northern Durham will enter their respective matches in a three-way tie for third place in the Big 8 with 2-1 records.

For the fourth straight time, the Orange volleyball team defeated the Cedar Ridge Red Wolves on Tuesday night. In a 3-0 sweep, senior Libby Jones finished with seven kills and two digs. The Panthers never trailed in any of the three sets. Just one night removed from a five-set loss to Person in Roxboro, the Panthers improved to 6-2 overall, 2-1 in the Big 8 Conference. Orange travels to Northwood on Thursday night. 

The Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is senior volleyball outside hitter Colby Rabalais.

In the Red Wolves’ season-opener against Bartlett Yancey, they were only three points away from a loss after dropping the first two sets. Rabalais came up with two big aces as the Red Wolves captured the set, and eventually captured the match on scores of 21-25, 16-25, 25-20, 25-22 and 15-12.

On Thursday, Cedar Ridge defeated Eastern Alamance 3-1. Rabalais came away with seven kills and one block. In Wednesday’s 3-1 loss to Durham School of the Arts, Rabalais had six digs.

“She really rose to the occasion against Eastern Alamance,” said Cedar Ridge Volleyball Coach Anna Seethaler.”She just really got the crowd moving and really took a lead position. “She is a great comeback player. She shows a lot of fire and is ready to play wherever we are. That’s the type of player you want to have on your team.”

Last season as a junior, Rabalais had 78 kills, 18 aces, and 90 blocks. This is her third varsity season. As a sophomore, she started two games.

On Tuesday night, Rabalais and her teammates will attempt to defeat archrival Orange. The first of two meetings between the crosstown rivals takes place at Cedar Ridge. Last season, the Panthers swept the Red Wolves. Orange won the first match on August 31^st 3-1 at OHS. On September 26^th, Orange defeated Cedar Ridge 3-0.

Our 2nd Orange Panther of the Week for 2018 is Orange Soccer midfielder Cam Michalski. Last week, Michalski scored a goal as the Panthers earned its first win of the season over Person 5-1 in Roxboro. On Tuesday night, Michalski scored in a 2-2 tie with Eastern Alamance. On Monday, Orange handily defeated Eastern Alamance in a rematch at Orange Soccer Field 4-2. When he isn’t playing soccer for club teams, Cam likes rooting on Chelsea in England’s Premier League and hopes the Blues won’t have a repeat of the 2017 season. Orange returns to action on Tuesday night to face Person in Hillsborough.