Jeff Hamlin

For the fourth straight time, the Cedar Ridge men’s soccer team defeated Orange on Wednesday night at Red Wolves Stadium. Jorge Salazar and Chris Mendez each scored two goals as the Red Wolves defeated the Panthers 4-1. It was the first win in Central Carolina Conference action for new Cedar Ridge men’s soccer coach Chauncey Brummel, who took over in July. The score was deceiving as Orange nearly tied the game with 15:00 remaining. Konnor Johnson sent a gorgeous ball to Darius Corbett, Orange’s leading goal scorer, from eight yards away. But Cedar Ridge goalkeeper Benjamin Weaver Madeline big save with his knee just as Corbett got the shot away. Salazar added a late goal on a penalty kick. The Red Wolves earned its first home win of the season. They will travel to Eastern Alamance on Monday night in Mebane. Cedar Ridge has also beaten Orange in four of its last five matchups.

This week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is junior varsity running back/defensive back Tyler Fields. On September 2, the Cedar Ridge junior varsity football team defeated Bartlett Yancey 21-18 in Yanceyville. Fields had a great all-around game. He scored two touchdowns on offense. Then on defense, he had two interceptions as the Red Wolves earned its first win of the season. Fields played his middle school football at Gravelly Hill Middle School in Efland. Against the Buccaneers, linebacker Matt Turner made several big tackles with the game on the line. Quarterback Tom Crawford through to Luke Orstad for the opening touchdown. After Fields’ second touchdown, Gavin Sher caught a pass from Crawford for a 2-point conversion. Brian Mazariegos kicked a point after touchdown after Fields’ first touchdown. Turner, Mason Cates and Mazariegos all had big defensive games for Cedar Ridge. The Red Wolves will travel to Person on Thursday searching for its second win of the year.

The crowds at Cedar Ridge volleyball games have been spirited and loud this season. On Tuesday night, it was much calmer following the Orange County School Board’s ruling that limited spectators to two people per player. Regardless, Cedar Ridge improved to 10-0 after holding off Western Alamance. As usual, Cedar Ridge played its best five points from victory. In the third set, Cedar Ridge got a kill from junior Melissa Benkowitz off an assist from Cameron Lloyd to take set point. Western Alamance captured the third set 27-25, only the second set that the Red Wolves have dropped this season. Cedar Ridge opened the fourth set with an 8-1 run. Lloyd served consecutive aces as Cedar Ridge reeled off seven straight points. Junior libero Grace Young had six digs in the fourth set alone, and won match point when her dig off a Warrior serve sailed over the net and fell harmlessly onto the other end of the floor. Julie Altieri served the final five points of the match, including back-to-back aces that put Cedar Ridge ahead 23-12. The Red Wolves are now 37-7 since 2019, 22-4 in conference play. The Red Wolves will look to remain undefeated when they travel to Williams on Thursday in Burlington.

Women’s tennis: Cedar Ridge 6, Western Alamance 3: Cedar Ridge sophomore Cameron Mayhew won her third straight match in singles play as the Red Wolves defeated Western Alamance at Cedar Ridge tennis courts on Monday afternoon.

Mayhew, who has competed at #1 singles in all of the Red Wolves’ dual matches so far this season, opened with a 6-2, 6-1 victory.

Cedar Ridge senior Hannah Shinnick won two matches against the Warriors. She opened with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Madison Randleman at #3 singles. At day turned into night, Shinnick teamed with classmate Olivia Kelly at #2 doubles to defeat Madison Randleman & Sophie Touchette 8-5. That win sewed up the match for the Red Wolves, who improved to 3-3 overall, 2-2 in the Central Carolina Conference.

Kelly wonder #5 singles match over Sarah McLaughlin 6-3, 7-5. At #6 singles, Cedar Ridge freshman Adeline Cummings defeated Touchette 6-2, 6-0.

At #3 doubles, Red Wolves freshman Ella Caltabiano teamed with Cummings to win 8-3.

Cedar Ridge will travel to Burlington to face Williams on Wednesday afternoon.

Orange 8, Riverside 1: Orange swept all six singles matches to defeat Riverside at Orange Tennis Courts on Wednesday afternoon. Grace Pell captured her match in three sets. Riverside’s only victory came at #3 doubles. Orange improved to 8-2.

Northwood 6, Orange 3: The Chargers ended Orange’s four-match winning streak on Monday in Pittsboro. Erin Sollars won at #5 singles. Shannon Sollars won in a third-set tiebreak at #6 singles. Once again, Pell was extended to three sets but fell just short. 10-8. The Lady Panthers are 3-1 in the CCC.

Men’s soccer: Williams 6, Orange 1:

Wiliams, who captured the 2019 3A State Championship, defeated Orange 6-1 at Orange Soccer Park on Monday night. The Panthers’ only tally came from junior Cooper Zinn on an assist from Dylan Silverman. It was Zinn’s first goal of the year. Kenan King had four goals for the Bulldogs, who improved to 4-2-2 overall, 2-0 in the CCC.

Orange falls to 3-6, 0-2 in the CCC. The Panthers will play in the opening leg of the Hillsborough Derby on Wednesday night against Cedar Ridge at Red Wolves Stadium. Cedar Ridge has won the last three matches against Orange and four of the last five. Kickoff will be at 6:30 at Cedar Ridge.

Northwood 2, Cedar Ridge 1: The Red Wolves were tied with the Chargers at the half in their conference game at Chargers Stadium on Monday night. Northwood got the game-winning goal in the second half. The Red Wolves are 1-7 overall, 0-1 in the CCC

Women’s Golf: The second Central Carolina Conference meet of the year was held on Monday at the Preserves at Jordan Lake in Chapel Hill. In a field of 24 participants, Orange’s Sarah Durham finished tied for 2nd overall with a 47. Durham tied with Northwood’s Lily Jordan for second place.

Eastern Alamance’s Emily Mathews won the meet with a 35 through nine holes. Western Alamance won the team competition with 149 strokes, seven strokes ahead of Northwood, who finished at 155. Eastern Alamance finished third at 159. Orange was fourth with 168, while Person finished at 185.

Orange’s Samantha Durham, Sarah’s sister, finished tied for seventh with a 51.

Cedar Ridge’s Olivia Aitkin, who is the Red Wolves only golf participant, also finished in the top ten. Aitkin tied with Eastern Alamance’s Sarah Vannavong by shooting a 57.

Orange’s Lucia Godinez, Kayla Pope, Shannon Dorsi also participated in the meet.

This week’s Orange Panther of the Week is running back Omarion Lewis. And the defensive player of the week is senior Kameron Harshaw. On Friday night, Lewis had a career-high 174 yards rushing with two touchdowns as Orange defeated Granville Central 47-0 for its first win of the season. Harshaw had four tackles for loss, including two sacks. Harshaw now leads Orange with 12 tackles for loss this season. It was Lewis’s second career 100–yard rushing game. His first came in the very first varsity game he ever played in 2019 against South Granville. Lewis leads Orange in rushing yards, yards from scrimmage and touchdowns so far this year. Harshaw is a nose tackle that gets off the ball so quickly, Coach Van Smith said Harshaw is among the fastest defensive linemen he’s ever coached. Lewis, Harshaw and the rest of the Orange Panthers will start play in the Central Carolina Conference this Friday night when they face Western Alamance in Elon. You can hear that game here on HillsboroughSports.com.

Over the summer, Orange senior kicker Darius Satterfield started his own fundraiser to fight against childhood cancer. All proceeds go to Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, a nonprofit fighting against childhood cancer one cup at a time. Satterfield was introduced to the idea of a fundraiser during a kicking camp in Tennessee over the summer. For every point that Satterfield makes this year, there will be more money raised. Through four games this season, Satterfield has raised $300. During the summer, Satterfield was invited to Kohls National Kicking Camp. He worked with former East Chapel Hill head coach Bill Renner, the father of former UNC quarterback Bryn Renner, on his technique. This year, Satterfield has run in a pair of 2-point conversions, including last week against Granville Central. To learn more about Satterfield’s fundraiser, go to @dsatt7 on Twitter.

Following a long, contentious day, the Orange County School Board voted not to shut down all high school sports in Hillsborough, but spectators will be limited to two people per player for the next two weeks in all sports. Furthermore, spectators will be required to wear masks and no concessions will be sold at games during that period.

On Monday, a report from the Orange County Health Department was released that recommended shutting down all sports for two weeks due to the spread of the delta variant of COVID-19. The recommendation came after a study by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, which released a report last week that showed clusters among school sports teams accounted for 45% of all clusters in North Carolina middle and high schools.

However, Orange County Schools have reported just five cases of COVID-19 in its athletic departments this year. The Orange High volleyball team was forced to shut down for two weeks after its first game on August 17 against Jordan. They returned to action two weeks ago against Southern Alamance.

The proposal would have ceased all football activities from September 14-through-September 30, as well as offseason practices and workouts for men’s and women’s basketball, wrestling and competitive cheerleading.

The measure also would have forced volleyball, men’s soccer, and cheerleading to operate on a limited basis with modifications for both the participants and the spectators in order to reduce the risk of COVID-19.

The agenda at the Orange County School Board meeting was largely unknown by the public until Monday morning. It quickly made the rounds online and led to immediate backlash against the school board and the Orange County Health Department. By late Monday afternoon, protestors gathered outside Gravelly Hill Middle School in Efland to denounce the measure. It spilled over into a public comment session during the meeting that lasted in excess of an hour and ranged in subject matter from COVID-19 to Black Lives Matters flags. Chairwoman Hillary McKenzie repeatedly warned onlookers in the audience who voiced disapproval while the board discussed the measure.

The meeting didn’t adjourn until 10:30PM.

Board member Brenda Stephens expressed reservations about shutting down sports, but not other extracurricular activities. She also harkened back to last month’s board meeting, when the board opted not to require vaccinations for students in order to play sports, as well as play in band, act in drama and participate in other extracurricular activities.

“I have a level of discomfort with a lot of this,” Stephens said. “I don’t feel comfortable singling out just the athletes. I just don’t.”

The Orange football team will play its Central Carolina Conference opener at Western Alamance on Friday night in Elon. Orange will have a home game against Walter Williams on September 24. The measure that restricts fans is slated to end before Orange’s homecoming game on October 8th against Person at Auman Stadium.

The two-week limit on spectators will have an impact for Cedar Ridge volleyball, which was expecting a huge crowd next Monday for its rematch against D.H. Conley, the defending 3A State Champions. The Red Wolves defeated the Vikings 3-0 in Greenville on August 22.

Cedar Ridge’s junior varsity squad, which is the only football team the Red Wolves are fielding this year, is scheduled to remain on the road for the next two weeks with trips to Person this Thursday night and to Orange on September 30. The Red Wolves next home game is slated for October 7 against Eastern Alamance.

School board member Will Atherton also expressed reservations about shutting down all sports for two weeks.

“I have a high level of discomfort with doing this,” Atherton said. “Especially since (the football teams) have already played four games. I’ve talked with many coaches and parents. I just don’t see any support this.”

Atherton did support fans wearing masks and social distancing.

“That is something we should be doing and protecting our citizens, as well,” Atherton said.

“There has been tremendous risk in the lack of masking and the lack of social distancing at football games,” said board member Sarah Smylie. “I think that’s something that has to be addressed if we want to run these things safely.”

The release from the Orange County Health Department also contained vaccination rates for various fall sports in the Orange County School District. The vaccination rate among football players in Hillsborough at 53%. Tennis and cross country have an 83% vaccination rate, which are the highest among fall sports. Soccer is at 73%. Volleyball is at 60%.

Women’s Tennis:

Orange 7, Cedar Ridge 2: After going years without beating its crosstown rival, the Orange women’s tennis team has now won three straight dual matches against Cedar Ridge.

Last Tuesday, the Lady Panthers defeated Cedar Ridge 7-2 at Red Wolves Tennis Courts.

The Lady Panthers won four singles matches and swept the three doubles matches to improve to 6-1, 2-0 in the Central Carolina Conference (a match against Williams on September 1 was suspended and will resume on September 27).

There were two marathon matches. At #2 singles, Orange sophomore Grace Pell went to a third-set tiebreaker against Cedar Ridge senior Patz Chloe. Pell prevailed 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), with Pell taking the 10-point tiebreaker 10-5 to improve to 6-2 on the season.

Tea Jones, last week’s Orange Panther of the Week, had another three-set match against freshman Ella Caltabiano. In the opening set, Caltabiano won 6-3. Jones bounced back to win the second set 6-3, and the 10-point tiebreaker 11-9.

At #3 singles, junior Jinkie Andrews defeated Hannah Shinnick 6-3, 6-4. Andrews later teamed with Erin Sollars for a win at #3 doubles 8-4. Erin Sollars won her match in singles 6-0, 6-2.

Cedar Ridge sophomore Cameron Mayhew, who won the Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week back in June, captured the #1 singles match over Finley White 6-3, 6-1. Freshman Adeline Cummings won Cedar Ridge’s other singles match over Orange freshman Shannon Sollars 7-5, 6-3.

Orange clinched the match at #1 doubles when White and Pell teamed to win 8-4.

Orange 8, Person 1: The Lady Panther improved to 7-1 with the win over the Rockets on Thursday in Hillsborough. Orange took five of the six singles matches to sew up the dual match.

Makayla Davis earned her third singles win of her varsity career at #3 singles, 6-1, 6-1.

White, Pell, Shannon Solars, and Isabelle Lynn also won for Orange.

In doubles: Jinkie Andrews teams with Tea Jones for a win at #1 doubles 8-1. Jones and Madelyn Horn won the most dramatic match of the day at #3 doubles by a score of 8-6. Erin & Shannon Sollars won 8-0 at #2 doubles.

Volleyball:

Cedar Ridge 3, Eastern Alamance 1: Cedar Ridge’s streak of 24 consecutive victorious sets came to an end against Eastern Alamance in Mebane on Thursday night.

The Red Wolves unbeaten streak didn’t end.

After the Eagles became the first team to take a frame from the Red Wolves 27-25 in the opening set, Cedar Ridge rolled 25-10, 25-12 and 25-12 to remain undefeated at 9-0. Cedar Ridge also maintained first place in the Central Carolina Conference at 4-0.

Cedar Ridge will host Western Alamance on Tuesday at Red Wolves Gymnasium, then travel to Western Alamance on Thursday.

Men’s Soccer:

Orange 3, Riverside 0: Just one week after losing to Riverside 3-0 at Linny Wrenn Stadium, Orange rebounded to defeat the Pirates 3-0 at Orange Soccer Park on Thursday night. Panther co-Captain Jasper Tell notched a goal for Orange, and also assisted on another goal by junior Bryan Membreno. Sophomore Enzo Bruhns, in his varsity debut after starting the season on the junior varsity squad, scored a goal that was assisted by freshman Konner Johnson.

Junior goalkeeper Connor McMurty posted the clean sheet for Orange, who improved to 3-5.

Women’s Golf:

Occoneechee Golf Course in Hillsborough hosted its first Central Carolina Conference meet of the season last week. Western Alamance finished first in the team standings at 140 strokes. Eastern Alamance’s Emily Mathews had the top individual score with a 35 through nine holes.

Orange had four players for its squad. Sarah Durham, who was an Orange Panther of the Week in 2020, had the top score for the Panthers with a 47. Durham had the sixth-highest score in the meet.

Cedar Ridge’s only representative was Olivia Aitkin, who shot a 52. Aitkin is a rare three-sport athlete. She is also a swimmer during the winter and is a starting centerfielder for the Cedar Ridge softball team.

Keshawn Thompson: It was a showdown between a former Orange Panther and a former Cedar Ridge Red Wolf at Barker-Lane Stadium in Buies Creek on Saturday. The Campbell Fighting Camels, featuring former Orange linebacker Keshawn Thompson, faced off against the Elon Phoenix, which included former Cedar Ridge linebacker Adam Chnupa. The Phoenix defeated the Camels 24-23. For the second week in a row, Thompson led Campbell in tackles with nine. Last week, Thompson was honorable mention for Big South weekly football honors. Campbell is 0-2. They will face Presbyterian on Saturday in Buies Creek.

Adam Chnupa: Elon is now 1-1 after the victory over Campbell. Chnupa played special teams for the Phoenix in the win. Elon will travel to Appalachian State on Saturday.

Payton Wilson: In N.C. State’s loss to Mississippi State on Saturday night at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, MS, Wilson suffered a shoulder injury. Wilson did register his first sack of the season. He finished with three tackles. There’s no word yet on whether Wilson will miss any action. Mississippi State defeated N.C. State 24-10. The Wolfpack were deprived of its first road win against an SEC team since 1977.

Trenton Gill: Former Cedar Ridge punter Trenton Gill was too busy for the Wolfpack’s liking against Mississippi State. Gill had seven punts on Saturday night. He averaged 43.6 yards per punt. His longest was 55 yards. One of the punts was downed inside the 20-yard line. The Wolfpack will host Furman on Saturday night at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh.

Rodney Brooks: After missing the opening game of the season for the Division II Livingstone Blue Bears, former Orange quarterback/defensive back Rodney Brooks made his season debut on Saturday. Savannah State, an FCS team, crushed Livingstone 50-6 at Theodore Wright Stadium in Savannah, GA. Brooks, a safety, had four tackles.

Bryse Wilson: On Sunday at PNC Park, the Washington Nationals defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-2. Wilson suffered the loss for the Bucs. In four-and-one-third innings, Wilson surrendered five runs off seven hits and two walks. Luis Garcia, Alex Avila and Lane Thomas honored off of Wilson, who is now 2-7 this season with a 4.97 ERA. The Pirates travel to Miami next weekend.

Kayla Hodges: After a tight loss to N.C. State, the Elon women’s soccer team rebounded with consecutive wins last week. On Thursday, the Phoenix defeated Gardner-Webb 2-0 at Rudd Field in Elon. Hodges started and played all 90 minutes. On Sunday, the Phoenix defeated American University at Reeves Field in Washington, D.C. Once again, Hodges played the duration of the game and fired one of Elon’s ten shots against the Eagles. Through seven games, Hodges is tied for the team lead with two goals. Elon faces Furman on Friday in its final nonconference game of the year.

Brittany Daley: Emory University’s women’s soccer routed Greensboro College 6-0 in Atlanta on Saturday. Daley played all 90 minutes at centerback for Greensboro. The Pride will travel to Bridgewater on Wednesday.

Jordan Rogers: The Division III William Peace women’s soccer team has won two in a row. On Sunday, the Pacers defeated Ferrum 3-1 at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary. Rogers started at wingback for Peace. On Wednesday, Peace defeated Johnson & Wales University 2-0 in Charlotte. It was Rogers’ 40th game for Peace. The Pacers are 2-2. They will travel to Brevard on Wednesday.

Bailey Lucas: The Division III Meredith College volleyball team won two out of three matches over the weekend. On Friday, Christopher Newport defeated the Avenging Angels 3-1 on scores of 25-18, 24-26, 25-23 and 25-12 at Weatherspoon Gymnasium in Raleigh. For the first time this season, Lucas didn’t start for Meredith. She did finish with two kills, 14 assists and five digs. The Avenging Angels won both of its matches on Saturday. They opened with a sweep of Guilford on scores of 25-17, 25-8 and 25-22 at the Hermann Athletic Center in Raleigh. Lucas came off the bench and had 16 assists and one dig. Meredith defeated William Peace 3-1. Lucas led the Avenging Angels with 25 assists and seven digs. Meredith is 5-3 and will play a doubleheader against Brevard and Maryville on Friday in Brevard.