Orange Men’s Lacrosse

This week’s Orange Panther of the Week is lacrosse midfielder Connor Kruse. On Thursday night, Orange returned to action and edged Jordan 14-13. Kruse had four goals and three assists. The following night, Orange pulled away from Williams and won 12-8, keeping the Bulldogs scoreless in the final 12:08. Kruse finished with five goals and two assists. Kruse is the leading scorer for an Orange team that is undefeated in the Mid-Carolina Conference at 8-0. Kruse, as a freshman, was a prominent player on Orange’s conference championship team last season, which advanced to the 3A/2A/1A State Quarterfinals. Kruse is the son of Travis Kruse, a former lacrosse player at UNC and Johns Hopkins. It was clear this would be a solid season for Orange from the very beginning. On March 2, Orange defeated East Chapel Hill at Dave Thaden Stadium, the first time ever the Panthers defeated the Wildcats in lacrosse. The Panthers will face Eastern Alamance on Tuesday at Auman Stadium, then take on Northwood in Hillsborough. Orange will conclude the regular season with a road trip to Eastern Alamance on Thursday night in Mebane. If Orange wins two of its three games this week, they will win the Mid-Carolina Conference championship under head coach Chandler Zirkle. 

Photo by Sherri Corbin Nevius

There’s the Crustacean Sensation. There’s the Cow Man. There’s the son of a former UNC lacrosse star that is its leading scorer. And the goalkeeper is female.

Those parts, and many, many more, have put the Orange lacrosse team in line for its second straight conference championship.

Connor Kruse, the son of former UNC and Johns Hopkins lacrosse midfielder Travis Kruse, scored six goals while junior Tigh Metheney added two goals in the fourth quarter as Orange remained undefeated in the Mid-Carolina Conference with a 14-8 win over Cedar Ridge at Red Wolves Stadium on Friday night.

The Panthers (9-2, 7-0) have won seven in a row.

Cedar Ridge senior co-Captain Roman Oguntoyinbo factored in on every Red Wolf tally except one, scoring four goals and assisting on three others. Oguntoyinbo tied the game at 7-7 after he grabbed a ground ball on the opening faceoff of the second half, won by Cedar Ridge’s Jackson Kralic, and sent an overhand shot past Orange sophomore goalkeeper Katie Wolter just 25 seconds into the third quarter. Wolter and the rest of the Orange defense held Cedar Ridge to just one goal for the rest of the game. Wolter finished with eight saves.

In the second half, five different Panthers scored, including junior Joe Cady notching the game-winning goal with 8:29 remaining in the third quarter when he ran in from the right wing and threw a bounce shot past Cedar Ridge goalkeeper Leo Oguntoyinbo. Kruse, Metheney, Andrew Harris and Josh Crabtree added goals during Orange’s 7-1 run to finish the game.

“We have a pretty deep team,” said Orange coach Chandler Zirkle. “I think we have more guys who can up the middle of the field than other teams. This Cedar Ridge team is a phenomenal team. This is the best Cedar Ridge team since I’ve been here. It is, by far, the best coached team. They picked their level up to a pace that was insane.”

Cedar Ridge, under first-year head coach Cole Churchill, played its third game in as many days. On Wednesday night, Northwood scored in the final two minutes to defeat the Red Wolves 9-8. Cedar Ridge bounced back the next night with a 12-5 win over Seaforth in Pittsboro.

“I think we have some more running to do,” said Cedar Ridge coach Cole Churchill. “We can always be in better shape. I think we played a good first half and in the second half we lost some of our focus. We did some of the silly things that hurt us quickly. As the momentum shifted, we just never caught back up. Our energy was low because we were tired and we didn’t get the same kind of bench energy.”

Kruse, who had four goals in a 14-7 win at Western Alamance on Wednesday night in Elon, immediately inserted his influence by scoring the game’s opening two goals in just 48 seconds. Metheny found Kruse for the second goal, and the Panthers roared out to a 2-0 lead they wouldn’t concede for the rest of the half.

Oguntoyinbo hit senior attacker James Clayton with a centering pace, and Clayton fired in an sidearm shot from the top of the box for the first Cedar Ridge goal. Kruse responded with another goal with 5:52 remaining in the first quarter, following by the opening tally from junior Jake Wimsatt, Orange’s face-off ace. Kruse scored his fourth goal in the opening quarter on a running bounce shot with 1:27 remaining.

Cedar Ridge went on a 4-2 run to close out the first half. Junior Billy Power, who transferred to Hillsborough in November, took a pass from Clayton and fired in a shot from 15 yards away. After Cady scored for Orange, Oguntoyinbo fired in a shot in a man-up situation off an assist from Power after Orange was called for a slashing penalty. Clayton whittled the Orange lead down to 6-5 off a feed from Ogunotoyinbo. The Red Wolves had an opportunity to tie, but couldn’t clear the ball up the field off a check by Crabtree. Wimsatt chased in on the loose ground ball with a sidearm shot to increase Orange’s lead to 7-5.

Cedar Ridge’s Holden Neal put the Red Wolves within one goal at the half on another goal set up on an assist by Oguntoyinbo.

“For them to cut the lead down to one goal at the half was eye-opening for us, but in a fun way,” Zirkle said. “It put our level higher to where we had to get to. They were playing its third game in three days. Cedar Ridge played a great game.”

For a team with three players named “Josh,” the Panthers have had to get creative with nicknames. Josh Crabtree, who scored Orange’s 10th goal in the third quarter, is the “Crustacean Sensation.” Josh Cowan, a mainstay on defense, is the “Cow Man.” Whether he joined the FFA is a question that remains unanswered.

For Churchill, who was a member of the Cedar Ridge Class of 2015, the struggle to get healthy has been a huge obstacle. Senior Kellan Hepditch has been out of action, while another defensive stalwart, Thomas Allen, just returned to action this week. Gavin Scher, a freshman long-stink defenseman, has had shoulder problems.

Nonetheless, the Red Wolves (8-4, 5-4) remain likely to make the 3A/2A/1A State Playoffs.

“I think our consistency has been impacted because of injuries,” Churchill said. “Before you had two seniors and a junior that have played three years together. Then when you put others in the lineup, you don’t have the same chemistry. They do a great job coming together and I’m hoping adding Thomas back will give us more chemistry.”

The Orange lacrosse team remains undefeated in the Mid-Carolina Conference. On Friday night, the Panthers defeated crosstown rival Cedar Ridge 14-8 at Red Wolves Stadium. Sophomore Connor Kruse scored six goals, including two in the first 48 seconds as the Panthers jumped out to a 5-1 lead. Cedar Ridge evened the game at 7-7 with 11:35 remaining in the third quarter, but the Panther defense allowed only one more goal in the final 23:25 of regulation. Orange goalkeeper Katie Wolter finished with eight saves. Wolter is one of the few female players in the state going toe-to-toe against male players, but she comes from a long line of goalkeepers. Her brother Tyson played at Orange and eventually played at Division III Pfeiffer. Orange’s Tight Metheny scored both of Orange’s goals in the fourth quarter, the final one on an assist from junior Jake Wimsatt, who finished with three points. Orange is atop the Mid-Carolina Conference at 7-0, 9-2 overall. The Panthers will travel to Seaforth on Tuesday, then host Northwood on Wednesday in a huge rematch from a game on March 21, which Orange won 14-9 in Pittsboro.

PITTSBORO–If they accomplish nothing else for the rest of this season, the Orange lacrosse team can say they came back from a 7-1 deficit to beat longtime rival Northwood. And they did it in Pittsboro.

While it was a great victory, Orange coach Chandler Zirkle would rather not reach the point where rallying from a six-goal deficit would be necessary from now on.

However, it was entirely required on Monday night after the Chargers roared out at home behind strong play from midfielders Will Smith and Ryan Brinker. But Northwood was without its leading scorer, Taylor Laberge, as well as defensive stalwarts Van Reece and Gianmarc Byers (both injured). Without them, Northwood suited up just 16 players, and one of those was backup goalkeeper Robbie Delgado.

Zirkle successfully managed the game into a battle of attrition that a heavily-manned Panthers squad was more than capable of dominating in the final minutes. Orange scored eight consecutive goals in the fourth quarter to come away with a 14-9 victory at Charger Stadium.

Sophomore midfielder Connor Kruse finished with five goals and three assists. Jake Wimsatt had three goals, all in the fourth quarter. Joe Cady added two goals.

Orange and Northwood entered the game undefeated in the Mid-Carolina Conference. The Panthers (6-2, 4-0 in the MCC) are scheduled to host Eastern Alamance on Wednesday at Auman Stadium in Hillsborough, then travel to Burlington to face Williams on Thursday night in the final game before spring break.

“We didn’t play the solid game we needed to play,” said Zirkle. “So we needed to get into that mode. The biggest part of the game was making things tighter in the second quarter. Because if go to halftime down four or five goals, you’re spending ten minutes trying to figure out how you’re going to lose.”

The Panthers also ended a five-game losing streak inside Chargers Stadium. Orange, who lost 17-6 last year at Northwood, claimed its first victory in Pittsboro since they defeated the Chargers 9-7 to start to 2015 season under previous head coach David O’Neal.

After Northwood’s William Johnson scored from an 18-yards away with 8:47 remaining in the first half to put the Chargers ahead 7-1, the Panthers scored four consecutive goals. Kruse factored in on all four, assisting on a goal by Cady with 8:01 remaining in the second quarter. Kruse scored the final three goals of the half, including a bounce shot off a feed from Josh Crabtree. With 12.8 seconds left, Kruse took a centering pass from Tight Metheney and sent an overhand shot into the lower right corner of the net to reduce Northwood’s lead to 7-5 going into halftime.

Smith, who finished with four goals, opened the second half with a shot past Orange goalkeeper Katie Wolter with 7:22 remaining in the third quarter. From that point forward, the Chargers only scored one goal in the final 19:22 of the game.

Orange finished on a 9-1 run.

Wimsatt notched a hat trick in the fourth quarter. With Orange down 9-6 going, Wimsatt scored off an assist from Cady. On a critical ground ball at midfield, Orange defenseman Josiah Wimsatt knocked the ball over the centerline to Kruse, who fed Cady on the doorstop for a goal that put Orange within a goal at 9-8 with 9:40 remaining.

Orange junior Seth Hall, who won nine face-offs, won the subsequent draw. After a wide shot by Metheney, Kruse won the race to the end line to retain possession. Off the restart, Kruse came behind the cage, swept right and scored off the curl to tie the game 9-9, the first tie of the night.

Wolter stopped Smith on a bounce shot that turned out to be the Chargers’ final attempt to take the lead with 7:37 remaining. After both teams were whistled for offside penalties, the Panthers Andrew Harris, in his first shot of the game, took a pass from Kruse and fired a sidearm attempt into the right side of the net to vault Orange into the lead for good.

Brantley Porterfield added insurance with his only goal of the game off an assist from Metheney. Wimsatt scored twice more in the final minutes.

Wolter took the win in net, her sixth of the season, making ten saves.

Wins at Northwood don’t come easy for any lacrosse team, and it’s no different at Orange High. On Monday night, the Panthers trailed 7-1 in the first quarter. The Panthers played a game of attrition against the Chargers and scored eight unanswered goals in the fourth quarter to win 14-9 and remain undefeated in the Mid-Carolina Conference. Junior Jake Wimsatt hat three goals in the fourth quarter, including the first goal of the frame to reduce the Chargers lead to 9-7. Junior Joe Cady notched the game-tying goal with 9: 47 remaining in regulation. The Panthers got the game-winning goal from Andrew Harris, while Brantley Porterfield added insurance a minute later. Sophomore Connor Kruse finished with five goals and three assists as the Panthers improved to 6-2, 4-0 in the Mid-Carolina Conference. Orange goalkeeper Katie Wolter had 10 saves, while Seth Hall won nine face-offs. Orange will host Eastern Alamance on Wednesday in Auman Staidum in Hillsborough.