Jeff Hamlin

There was a protest outside Orange High’s school gates because of the Orange County School Board mandate that limited fans at athletic events.

There was an Orange High band that performed in front of a fraction of a crowd that would ordinary gather at Auman Stadium for the first Friday in autumn.

There was a Williams running back who entered the night without a touchdown this season. He wound up scoring four.

But there was no offense from Orange, again, and it has left them on the brink of its fourth straight non-winning season.

Williams running back Alijah Richmond rushed for 109 yards and four touchdowns as Williams defeated Orange 28-0 on Friday night in Hillsborough. Richmond, who had not scored a touchdown in the Bulldogs’ opening five games, eclipsed his previous season-high of 108 yards, which came against Eastern Randolph on September 10.

The Panthers could only muster 89 yards total offense and crossed the 50-yard line just twice against the sizable Bulldogs. It was the fourth time in six games that Orange (1-5, 0-2 in the Central Carolina Conference) has been held under 150 yards total offense.

Under quarterback Jared Weaver, Orange threw the ball more in an effort to mitigate Williams’ size advantage up front. Weaver had a season-high six completions for 44 yards.

“Same old story, different team,” said Orange coach Van Smith. “We knew coming in they were extremely good against the run. They have been all year. So it knew it was going to be a battle. They had a lot of weapons on offense on different areas of the field. I thought we had a pretty good dad gum game plan that put us in the best position to win the game.”

Orange never got into the Williams red zone. The closest they came was on the first drive of the second half, the Panthers only sustained series all night. It opened with Weaver running for nine yards. After Williams’ was called for pass interference on 3rd-and-10, running back Omarion Lewis ran for eleven yards, the last of Orange’s five first downs. After Lewis gained two yards on 3rd-and-3 at the Williams 29-yard line, the Panthers went for it on 4th-and-1, but their run was stuffed by Bulldogs’ defensive linemen Sam Rhodes and Santiago Herrera.

The Panthers’ offense didn’t have a pulse the rest of the game.

Williams (4-2, 2-0), under first-year head coach Patrick Stokes, is two wins away from its first winning season since 2013.

On the Bulldogs’ second drive, quarterback Jaelean Brown had a 45-yard run to the Orange 15-yard line. Richmond battered away at the Panther defense until he scored his first touchdown on a two-yard push with 5:15 remaining the first quarter.

Meanwhile, Orange’s offense didn’t pick up its initial first down until a fake punt early in the second quarter. Punter Darius Satterfield found Elijah Danley, who made a diving catch to move the chains by perhaps two inches, if that. After Weaver hit running back Nathan Sorrells for a 10-yard gain, the drive stalled.

Satterfield punted the ball to the Williams 2-yard line. Williams quickly removed itself from that field position when Brown hit wide receiver Isaiah Ramsey on a simple swing pass. Ramsey rocketed up the field and Orange’s Steven Bellamy was the only person who stopped him from scoring. Three plays later, Richmond scored on a 3-yard run to end a 98-yard drive that only took four plays.

Bellamy also recovered a fumble in the second quarter to start another drive that went nowhere.

Richmond scored on a two-yard run in the third quarter and on a 29-yard screen pass from Brown in the fourth.

Orange enters its off-week. They will host Person for Homecoming, in whatever form that will be, on October 8.

“These kids better love football,” Smith said. “We’ve always said that football isn’t real fun. Winning is fun. This is the time right now where you dang well better love it. That’s been a problem for us all year. Kids missing practice. As a result, they miss time during the game. It’s just a recurring problem. They better figure out real quick how to get to practice every day. We can’t get better if we’re not here.”

It was the first of two games between Orange and Williams this year. Last night’s game counted in the Central Carolina Conference standings. Their meeting on October 22 in Burlington, which replaced the Panthers’ date against Cedar Ridge, will be a non conference game.

WILLIAMS 28, ORANGE 0

WIL-7 7 7 7-28

ORA-0 0 0 0-0

WIL-Alijah Richmond 2 run (Brick Bowen kikc0
WIL-Richmond 8 run (Bowen kick)

WIL-Richmond 2 run (Bowen kick)

WIL-Richmond 29 pass from Jaelean Brown (Bowen kick)

RUSHING-WILLIAMS 32-189 3 TD (Richmond 16-109 3 TD, Brown 8-55, Kylei Richmond 3-26, Dan Mahan 1-6, Nasir Price 1-2, Carmelo Neal 1-1, team 1-(-3), Dejuan Shaffer 1-(-7))

ORANGE- (Omarion Lewis 12-32, Nathan Sorrells 3-6, Jackson Wood 3-0, Jared Weaver 7-(-1), Ronald Cooper 2-(-4).

PASSING: WILLIAMS (Brown 6-10 132 TD)

ORANGE: 7-17 66 INT (Weaver 6-16 44 INT, Darius Satterfield 1-1 12)

RECEIVING: WILLIAMS (Richmond 2-34 TD, Izayah Ramsey 1-73, Will Rhodes 1-21, Price 1-5, Jake Marquis 1-(-1)

ORANGE (Sorrells 4-28, Elijah Danley 2-25, Wynston Brown 1-3)

This week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is senior goalkeeper Benjamin Weaver. Last week, Weaver allowed only one goal as the Red Wolves defeated Orange 4-1 in the Hillsborough Derby at Red Wolves Stadium. The Red Wolves are undefeated in its last four games against Orange, with three of those games wins. Weaver made a key save late in the second half that kept the match in Cedar Ridge’s favor at 2-1. It has been a whirlwind 2021 for Weaver. He moved to Hillsborough over the summer with his family from Scranton, Pennsylvania. He arrived at Cedar Ridge just as Chauncey Brummell was named the new Red Wolves men’s soccer coach. On Monday night, Cedar Ridge continued its momentum with a 2-0 win over Eastern Alamance in Mebane. Weaver earned his second clean sheet of the season. The Red Wolves will look to extend its winning streak to three straight when they face Person on Thursday night at Red Wolves Stadium in Hillsborough.

If you ever find yourself watching an Orange volleyball match, which is harder than it should be right now, chances are you’ll get your money’s worth.

Certainly that was the case on Wednesday night when Orange and Southern Alamance went to a five-set battle where the Patriots earned a 3-2 win to square the regular season series. But it was the Lady Panthers’ match for the taking.

Orange led 11-8 in the fifth and decisive set after Caitlin Carden knocked down a kill attempt by Southern’s Kelci Brooks. After a timeout, the Patriots reeled off five straight points and seven of the last eight to win 15-12. Rylee Humble scored a kill to set up set point, which was notched by Brooks. The Patriots (12-4) have won seven of its last eight matches.

Orange (5-4), who defeated the Patriots in four sets on September 1 in Graham, had its chances. In the opening set, the Lady Panthers had two sets points after a kill by junior Allie Wilkerson. But Caitlyn Russell spiked home a kill to tie the match at 25-25. Brooks scored the final point of the frame as the Patriots won 27-25.

In the final four sets, Orange sophomore Ella Wimsatt had 27 digs.

Orange didn’t trail in the second set, which started with an ace from Carden. Wimsatt had six kills in the set, while Carden had 18 assists. Wilkerson ended the set with an unassisted kill as Orange won 25-22.

Southern Alamance jumped out to a 7-1 lead in the third set. The closest Orange could ever get was 18-16. Freshman Ava Duggins got a kill to make it 24-20 and it ended after a Panther return on set point went long.

The Lady Panthers fell behind 9-2 in the fourth set, but roared back to win it 25-22. Wimsatt had three kills during a 10-2 Orange run, which evened the set 10-10. Orange took a 19-16 lead off consecutive aces by Carden. Wimsatt forced a fifth set after a spike set up by Carden.

On Tuesday night, Orange swept Eastern Alamance to start a three game homestand. The game marked the return of junior Erin Jordan-Cornell, who was an All-Big 8 Conference player last season in volleyball and basketball.

Cedar Ridge 3, East Chapel Hill 0

After its 21-game regular season winning streak came to an end against the defending 3A State Champions on Monday night, the Cedar Ridge volleyball team went back to the business of starting a new one.

On Tuesday, the Red Wolves defeated East Chapel Hill 3-0 at Cedar Ridge Gymnasium on scores of 25-20, 25-22 and 28-26. It was the second time this year the Red Wolves defeated the Wildcats.

It was a prompt response from the Red Wolves after they were swept by Conley on Monday. Just as the Red Wolves swept the Vikings last month in Greenville, Conley drove up to Hillsborough and handled Cedar Ridge on scores of 25-15, 25-20 and 25-18. It was the first time that Cedar Ridge lost a regular season match under the direction of second-year head coach Fiona Cunningham.

Conley defeated Cedar Ridge 3-1 in the 3A State Playoffs in January, the Red Wolves only loss in 2020.

“Last year, they got runs and we couldn’t use our middle,” Cunningham said. “When we played them earlier this season, we got runs and kept them from using their middle. Tonight, it flipped back. It seemed like neither team has an answer in the game itself, but adjusts for the next time. They just played great.”

Both the loss to Conley and the win over East Chapel Hill came in a sparsely populated Red Wolves Gymnasium, where the attendance was held down courtesy of mandates by the Orange County School Board to limit the spread of COVID-19. On Thursday night, the Red Wolves will likely face a rambunctious, rowdy atmosphere in Roxboro when they face Person, who was swept by Cedar Ridge two weeks ago in Hillsborough.

“We’ve known all season we’re beatable,’ Cunnigham said. “I think the girls didn’t want other teams to know that, but we’ve known that all season. We just another team to match us and Conley did that.”

Men’s Soccer: Cedar Ridge 2, Eastern Alamance 0

Days after scoring two goals against Orange in the Hillsborough Derby, Cedar Ridge’s Chris Mendez added to his team-lead in goals.

On Monday night, Mendez scored the game-winning goal as Cedar Ridge defeated Eastern Alamance 2-0 at Fred Brady Stadium in Mebane. Senior Jorge Salazar added insurance for the Red Wolves, who improved to 3-7 overall, 2-1 in the Central Carolina Conference. It was the second straight conference win for the Red Wolves.

Mendez now has seven goals on the season. Salazar is second on the team with seven points.

Goalkeeper Benjamin Weaver earned his second clean sheet of the season. It was his second straight win in net.

The Red Wolves were supposed to face Western Alamance on Wednesday night at Red Wolves Stadium, but the game was rained out. Cedar Ridge will host Person on Thursday night in Hillsborough.

Orange 4, Person 1

Orange co-Captain Jasper Tell scored the game-winning goal as the Panthers earned its first win in the Central Carolina Conference over Person on Monday night at Orange Soccer Park.

Junior Dylan Silverman assisted on the opening goal, then added Orange’s second goal later in the first half. In the second half, junior Cooper Zinn notched his third goal of the season. In the final ten minutes, junior Jack Pendergast added the first goal of his varsity career.

Orange’s trip to Northwood on Wednesday night was rained out. The Panthers will travel to Southern Durham on Friday.

Women’s tennis: Williams 5, Cedar Ridge 1:

Last Wednesday, the Red Wolves had just enough time to squeeze in six singles matches against Williams. Three of them went to 10-point tiebreakers in the third set, all of them claimed by Williams.

Red Wolves senior Chloe Patz won the Red Wolves only match at #2 singles over Haven Amick of Williams 7-6, 6-4. Cedar Ridge is 3-3 overall, 2-3 in the CCC. Their match scheduled for Wednesday against Person was rained out. The Red Wolves host Durham School of the Arts on Thursday.

Cross Country:

Two months after finishing 2nd in the state in the 3,200 meters, Orange senior Spencer Hampton made a major impression by finishing 2nd in the Friday Night Lights Festival, one of the biggest cross country events of the regular season at Ivey Redmon Sports Complex at Mount Tabor on September 10.

Hampton finished 2nd out of 238 runners with a time of 16:07.30. The only runner in the entire field to finish ahead of Hampton was North Lincoln’s Stephen Fernetti, who came in six seconds ahead of Hampton.

The strong showing by Hampton helped Orange finish fifth among 30 teams. In addition to Hampton, Orange’s Gabriel Schmid finished 10th. Sophomore Alden Cathey came in 23rd. Senior Ethan Horton came in 83rd and junior James Wheelis came in 93rd.

Providence captured the men’s team competition.

In the women’s race, Orange freshman Carolina Cathey was the top finisher, coming in 123rd. Kassi Scarantino, Sophia Schultz, Maggie Saunders and Margaret Hales also competed for Orange.

Women’s golf:

The latest Central Carolina Conference women’s golf meet was held at the Valley in Burlington on Monday. Orange senior Sarah Durham, this week’s Orange Panther of the Week, finished fifth overall out of 23 competitors with a 51. It was her third top five finish in three matches this year.

Sarah’s younger sister, Samantha, finished only one stroke behind her sister with a 52. Shannon Dorsi, Kayla Pope and Lucia Godinez also competed for Orange.

Cedar Ridge’s Olivia Aitkin tied for 9th with a 59.

Northwood won the team meet with a 151, two strokes better than Eastern Alamance’s 153. Orange came in fourth out of five teams with 168 strokes.

For this edition of the Retro Orange Panther of the Week, we journey back to last December to honor senior Lottie Scully. Last season, Scully was the Big 8 Volleyball Player of the Year. On January 7, she had a season-high eleven kills with two aces and six blocks in a sweep of Northern Durham. Scully started the season with a victory over the defending 3A State Champion Chapel Hill in four sets. Scully has played three years for the Orange varsity. During her sophomore year, the Lady Panthers reached the 3A State Playoffs. This season, Scully hasn’t played, but she will be moving on to play Division I volleyball at Binghamton University in upstate New York. Scully was a captain on last season’s team. She will graduate early from Orange in January, but first she hopes to see her teammates make a run to the state playoffs.

This should be a time for big games and active gyms and stadiums.

There’s potential for drama in volleyball. Cedar Ridge, despite a tough loss to defending 3A State Champion D.H. Conley on Monday, still leads the Central Carolina Conference by a game over Northwood. Orange volleyball has three home games this week.

Plus, Orange will host two football games at Auman Stadium this week. The junior varsity faces Cedar Ridge on Thursday night, the only football game between the two teams from Hillsborough this year. On Friday, Orange will take on Williams in its first home conference game.

But fan participation is back to levels last seen in the spring. After the Orange County School Board’s vote last Monday, attendance has been cut back to two fans per spectator. Hopefully, the mandate will be lifted in time for October when Cedar Ridge could be playing for a volleyball conference championship. Plus, the Orange women’s tennis team is battling for first place in the Central Carolina Conference.

Last week was a solid one for Orange and Cedar Ridge in all of the fall sports. On Sunday, we tipped our hand for one of the honorees of the Magnificent 7 for this week. Here’s a complete list of the best performers of the fifth week of fall sports:

Sarah Durham: This week’s Orange Panther of the Week, Sarah finished tied for 2nd at the CCC meet at the Preserve at Jordan Lake. She finished with a 47, tied with Northwood’s Lily Jordan. Every weekend, Sarah practices her tee shots at Occoneechee Golf Course in Hillsborough. On Sunday afternoon, she was kind enough to meet us on a Sunday afternoon to film the interview that was posted on Monday.

Jinkie Andrews: The Orange tennis senior had two wins in Orange’s 8-1 win over Riverside last Tuesday. Andrews teamed with Tea Jones to win at #1 doubles 8-8. At #3 singles, Andrews defeated Riverside’s Willow Tobin 6-1, 6-2. On Thursday, Andrews earned another win as the Lady Panthers defeated Roxboro Community School 7-2.

Avery Miller: Stong overall game against Person with eight kills and six digs. Against Northwood, Miller had a season-high ten kills. She also finished with eight digs, an ace and a block.

Benjamin Weaver: The Cedar Ridge goalkeeper made some huge saves as the Red Wolves won the Hillsborough Derby over Orange 4-1 at Red Wolves Stadium on Wednesday night. Weaver, who transferred to Cedar Ridge after moving to Hillsborough from Pennsylvania over the summer, may have saved the game with 14:45 remaining when he made a kick save on a shot by Orange’s Darius Corbett with the Red Wolves clinging to a 2-1 lead. Weaver also played well against Northwood in a tight 2-1 loss in Pittsboro, a game where the game-winning goal was scored with two minutes remaining.

Chris Mendez: Mendez scored the game-winning goal for the Red Wolves against Orange. Mendez fired eight shots against the Panthers, five of them on goal. He also finished the scoring when he collected his own rebound and deposited it into the net with 6:02 remaining.

Hannah Shinnick: The Cedar Ridge women’s tennis team defeated Western Alamance 5-4 last week in Hillsborough. Shinnick earned two big wins. She started with a victory at #3 singles over Madison Randleman 6-3, 6-3. At #2 doubles, Shinnick teamed with Olivia Kelly to win 8-5. It was a pair of Cedar Ridge freshmen, Ella Caltabiano and Adeline Cummings, who wrapped up the dual match victory with a 8-3 win at #3 doubles.

Julie Altieri: The Cedar Ridge volleyball team defeated Western Alamance 3-1 last Thursday. Altieri had 27 assists against the Warriors as the Red Wolves remained undefeated in the CCC. Altieri had three aces in the four set to wrap up the win for the Red Wolves. Cedar Ridge will resume conference play on Thursday with a critical game against Person.

The Orange men’s soccer team has its first win in the Central Carolina Conference. The Panthers defeated Person 4-1 at Orange High Soccer Park on Monday night. Junior Cooper Zinn scored his third goal in three games. The game-winning goal came from senior co-Captain Jasper Tyll off an assist from Dylan Silverman. In the second half, Silverman added his own goal. Junior Jack Pendergrast added the first goal of his varsity career as the Panthers won its first conference game against Person in 21 years. Orange is now 4-7 overall, 1-3 in the CCC. It was the first of three games for the Panthers this week. Orange will travel to Pittsboro on Wednesday night to face Northwood. Then the Panthers will face former Big 8 Conference rival Southern Durham on Friday night. They return home to face Eastern Alamance next Monday.