Cedar Ridge trailed Orange 3-1 with 17:00 remaining at Cedar Ridge Stadium on Wednesday night in the first leg of the Hillsborough Derby. Then Nicholas Frank went to work. He scored two gorgeous goals in a span of 43 seconds as the Red Wolves forced overtime with a 3-3 tie at the end of regulation. In penalty kicks, Frank scored the game-winning goal. Junior goalkeeper Ty Corbin stopped Orange’s final attempt, and the Red Wolves won penalties 4-3 to beat their crosstown rival. Frank now has four goals on the season. In this interview, he called the penalty he converted the most pressure he’s ever felt. It was Cedar Ridge’s first home win over Orange since 2015. 

It Wednesday night didn’t test the Cedar Ridge soccer team’s character, nothing ever will. The Red Wolves trailed crosstown rival 3-1 with 17:00 remaining, but rallied with two goals in a span of 43 seconds. The match reached penalty kicks, where Orange led 3-2 going into the fourth round. Cedar Ridge junior Ty Corbin made back-to-back saves on Orange last two attempts from the spot, the final one sparking a raucous celebration as the Red Wolves on 4-3 in penalties. It was Corbin’s second win in his high school career in penalties. Last year, Cedar Ridge defeated Southern Durham at Spartan Stadium where Corbin ended the game with a save. It was Cedar Ridge’s first win over Orange inside Red Wolves Stadium since 2015. 

Article by Tim Hackett

For Orange High School volleyball, last Thursday was pretty unusual. The Panthers are pretty used to playing Cedar Ridge, their cross-town rivals, but they’re also used to beating them: the Red Wolves’ victory at Orange on Thursday was their first in the series in five tries. That’s pretty unusual. The five-setter was the first time Orange had to go the distance in a match since last August. That’s pretty unusual. Cedar Ridge hit .175 as a team in the match and still won. That’s pretty unusual. And that Cedar Ridge victory came just days after their historic win over Chapel Hill, a team that hadn’t lost a match to another team from North Carolina all year. It doesn’t get a whole lot more unusual than that. 

But on Tuesday night in Hillsborough, everything was pretty much back to normal. Back at home in their first game since Thursday’s thriller, the Panthers (7-4, 2-1 Big 8) eked out a close first set before dispatching the Northwood Chargers (6-7, 1-3) in straight sets, 26-24, 25-15, 25-21. It’s the third straight win in this in-conference series for Orange after the Panthers won both matchups in four sets a year ago. 

The two teams went toe-to-toe to start the tilt. The Chargers served well to start and got out to a 13-10 lead, and Orange had little luck getting the left-side attack in gear. The solution? Switch the offense to the right side. It’s an uncommon strategy at any level of volleyball, but Orange’s Lottie Scully was the girl for the job. Facing that three-point deficit, Kaitlyn Werden back set for a right-side kill, sparking an 8-3 that vaulted Orange into the lead. But the Chargers wouldn’t die: the teams battled to ties at 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24 before, fittingly, a Scully ace gave Orange set point and a Scully set for a Werden kill on, you guessed it, the right side, gave Orange the set at 26-24. 

“We’ll feed the right side especially if they don’t have the defenders to block it,” Orange head coach Kelly Young said. “A lot of teams aren’t used to a strong right side attack from a defensive standpoint, so we’ll definitely go to it when we can.” 

The success on the opposite end finally opened up the traditional attacking avenues as the match progressed – Avery Miller and Emma Clements got their looks from the left side, and Erin Jordan-Cornell added a few kills out of the middle. Orange’s offensive diversity was on display in the second set as the Panthers scored the first five points and never looked back. Miller was clinical from both sides all set before Ella Van Tiem appropriately finished it off at 25-14 with another kill from the right side. 

But the Chargers still had some juice left in them. The visitors won five of the first six points and, after Scully responded with back-to-back kills from each pin, Northwood generated a run to establish a 16-13 lead. Young called a timeout, and the Panthers responded by rattling off the next six points to take a 19-16 lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Clements cleaned up the rebound on one of Northwood’s few blocks of Scully for match point, and then the Chargers bump-set a free ball wide to hand Orange the set 25-21 and the match three sets to none. 

Northwood’s serving, especially from Kaela Harris, kept the Chargers in the match early. Young conceded that her players might have been a little unsettled in their first match since Thursday’s events, but said that once they cleaned up their serving and passing in the second set things went a lot smoother. As for Scully, the sophomore setter/right side had a splendid showing in all phases – serving, setting and swinging. Afterward, Young said Scully has been playing through injuries all year and we might just be seeing the beginning of how good Scully could be. 

“She’s not even at her full potential,” Young said. “I’m just waiting for her to be as good as she can be.”

But things won’t get any easier for Scully and the Panthers, as Chapel Hill, the three-time defending conference champs, loom on Thursday. After Orange was able to get back to business as usual on Tuesday, if the Panthers were able to tame the Tigers on Thursday, that would be unusual indeed. 

In the new Big 8 Conference, the top teams play a big game every week. Sometimes, twice a week. A week after beating Chapel Hill and Orange in a 48-hour span, Cedar Ridge continued its torrid pace by beating Northern Durham 3-0 on Tuesday night at Red Wolves Gymnasium. The Red Wolves improved to 10-1, 4-0 in the Big 8 Conference. Cedar Ridge is tied for 1st in the Big 8 with East Chapel Hill. As you may have thought, Cedar Ridge will travel to East on Thursday night in a showdown for first place. Cedar Ridge defeated Bartlett Yancey on Monday night 3-0. In that match, seniors ShiLi Quade and Celeste Pasley helped the Red Wolves to its third straight win. They spoke with Hillsboroughsports.com’s John Franklin after Tuesday’s win over the Knights.  

The realignment of the new 3A/2A/1A lacrosse conferences raised some eyebrows across Hillsborough among players and coaches last week.

The North Carolina High School Athletic Association released new the new conference configurations last Thursday. Orange and Cedar Ridge remain paired together in Conference 9. The biggest surprise isn’t just who joined them, but also who didn’t.

Often, the NCHSAA will keep teams from an existing league evergreen for lacrosse, as well. However, Big 8 Conference members Chapel Hill, East Chapel Hill, Northwood and Southern Durham were split off into a new Conference 10. They were joined by Carrboro and Voyager Academy.

Orange and Cedar Ridge are joined in Conference 9 by fellow Big 8 member Northern Durham, and also J.F. Webb, Roxboro Community School, Vance Charter and Vance County.

The release of the new league brought this skeptical response from East Chapel Hill’s lacrosse Twitter account.

Unpopular Opinion: It was nice to have a (now former) Lacrosse Conference that was aligned to our #Big8 Conference… you know, like EVERY OTHER SPORT – made us feel like part of the whole. #PerpetuallyStartingOver @trianglelax @nclaxnews #nclaxscores pic.twitter.com/52WjRpld9x— East Lacrosse (@EastLax) September 12, 2019

Some of the players from both high schools in Hillsborough has a similar reaction.

One lingering question is will everyone in Conference 9 actually have a team?

Vance Charter opened in 2017. Though they offer 15 different sports, they have yet to do so for lacrosse. Vance County, formed after the consolidation of Northern and Southern Vance High Schools in 2018, joined the Big 8 Conference this summer. Even though Northern Vance had a lacrosse team in its final years, Vance County hasn’t fielded its first squad.

Roxboro Community School was slated to play in Conference 8 in 2019, but never made it to the league campaign. After playing four games, they disbanded, leaving Conference 8 to be contested among only Carrboro, Voyager and Webb.

It’s possible the NCHSAA was concerned about creating a league primarily consisting of schools that can’t be relied upon to complete a season or field a team. While Cedar Ridge and Orange are still young programs compared to their neighbors in Chapel Hill-Carrboro, they also have healthy participation and recent playoff success.

Cedar Ridge played for the 2017 3A/2A/1A State Championship. Last May, Orange defeated Northside-Jacksonville for its 2nd-ever state playoff win.

“Honestly, I was surprised,” said Cedar Ridge coach Patrick Kavanaugh about the new alignment. “Typically, the state has tried to keep the all sports conferences as in tact as possible. Obviously, splitting up East, Chapel Hill, Northwood and Southern out of our conference, they didn’t do that.”

For Cedar Ridge and Orange, it’s the exact opposite of conference stability that Chapel Hill and East Chapel Hill became synonymous for. The Tigers and the Wildcats were among the first teams in North Carolina to offer the sport in the late-90s. Long before it was sanctioned by the NCHSAA, Chapel Hill and East often met in the state playoffs when the sport was governed by the North Carolina Lacrosse Association, largely comprised of local head coaches. In fact, the Wildcats and the Tigers played for the 2006 State Championship at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary.

Both Kavanaugh and Orange Coach Chandler Zirkle say they will continue to schedule Chapel Hill, East Chapel Hill and Carrboro for nonconference games.

“We’re going to keep playing all of those teams,” Kavanaugh said. “They’re longtime rivals, they’re good teams and they’re close. We’re lucky. Orange and Cedar Ridge don’t have to travel 90 minutes to get quality lacrosse games. I teach until 4 o’clock. I’m not going to schedule games on the east side of Raleigh or in Greensboro when I can get quality of games within 20 minutes of Hillsborough.”

Carrboro and Cedar Ridge met for the 3A/2A/1A Eastern Regional Championship in 2016 and 2017.

Zirkle, whose father Franklin is the coach at Leesville Road in Raleigh, also was taken aback by the new league.

“I was a little disappointed that we won’t be playing the same times that we have in the past,” Zirkle said. “They’ve all been really fun rivalries to develop the last few years. Our goal is still going to be to play them. Those rivalries won’t go away.”

However, Zirkle said the new league does offer new possibilities for his team.

“We’re excited about the new opportunity,” Zirkle said. “There’s new competition and some teams that we don’t see all the time. So we’re interested to see what’s the going to be like.”

This week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is senior soccer midfielder Brandon Garcia. Entering Monday night’s game against Chapel Hill, Garcia had a six-game scoring streak. He ended last week with seven goals and three assists. That included a hat trick in a crazy 6-6 tie against the Durham School of the Arts on September 4. Garcia started the season with a goal and an assist in a 4-1 win over Eastern Alamance on August 19. He has scored a goal in every game except one. The lone exception was against Carrboro, where he assisted on a goal by Reese Weaver. This is Garcia’s third year on the varsity. When he graduates from Cedar Ridge in June, he hopes to move into the field of sports medicine and try to play soccer in his spare time. Garcia and the rest of the Red Wolves will host crosstown rival Orange on Wednesday night at Cedar Ridge Stadium at 6:45. 

This week’s Orange Panther of the Week is nose tackle/fullback Courtney Edwards. On Friday night, Edwards scored his first varsity touchdown on a 4-yard carry, sparking Orange’s 21-13 victory over Williams. The Panthers trailed 13-0 late in the first half. On defense, Edwards anchored a defensive line that limited the Bulldogs to 86 yards in the second half. Edwards had six tackles and a tackle for loss. Against South Granville, Edwards had four tackles, including two for a loss. A senior, Edwards hopes to lead the Panthers back into the postseason. He’s now in his second year on the varsity. Last year, as a starting nose tackle, Edwards had 51 tackles, including nine for losses. Orange returns to action at Riverside on Friday night. 

In the first-ever soccer game between the two schools, Orange defeated Vance County 10-1 at Orange Soccer Field on Monday night. Senior Cooper Anderson scored a goal for the Panthers. His classmate, Rohan Kasthuri, added an assist as the Panthers improve to 4-3 overall, 1-1 in the Big 8 Conference. It was the first goal of the season for Anderson. Kasthuri has a team-high six assists. Two years ago, Anderson and Kasthuri were sophomores as Orange defeated Jacksonville in the 3A State Playoffs. Now, with the Cedar Ridge game coming up Wednesday, the Panthers want to return to the state playoffs. Last season, Cedar Ridge and Orange split the season series, with each squad claiming road victories over the other. Orange travels to Cedar Ridge Wednesday night at 6:45. 

The Cedar Ridge volleyball team has guaranteed itself its best season since making the Eastern Regional Championship game in 2015. The Red Wolves are 9-1 after beating Bartlett Yancey on Monday night. Hillsboroughsports.com’s John Franklin talked with Cedar Ridge coach Anna Seethaler and three of the seniors who have been key in leading a young Red Wolves squad this season. Middle blocker Emma Downing, outside hitter Tori Dalehite and setter Cailyn Thornton have been with the team through thin times, and now they’re marching towards a birth in the state playoffs. Cedar Ridge will return to action against Northern Durham in Hillsborough. The Red Wolves and East Chapel Hill are tied for 1st in the Big 8 Conference, and those teams will play on Thursday at Wildcat Gymnasium. 

Would it be a stretch to say that last week was the most successful fall sports week at Cedar Ridge in years? Not at all.

In fact, it may be an understatement.

In 2016, the Cedar Ridge women’s tennis team won the Big 8 Conference Championship. The Red Wolves football team finished 6-5, the last time they had a winning season.

But to find a week with as many signature wins that register on a state level, you would have to go back to 2015, when the Red Wolves defeated Topsail and Lee County in the 3A State Volleyball playoffs. The Red Wolves hosted the 3A Eastern Regional championship match, where they lost to Asheboro in four sets.

A year after finishing 7-15, the Red Wolves put themselves in contention to win the Big 8 Championship with wins over Chapel Hill and Orange last week. Of course, it’s early. The Red Wolves are 3-0 and have eleven conference games remaining. But with freshmen Cameron Lloyd, Julie Altieri and Cameron Lanier leading the way, the Red Wolves will reach nine wins with a win tonight against Bartlett Yancey in Hillsborough. Keep in mind that after reaching the East final in 2015, Cedar Ridge hasn’t won nine games in a season.

Of course, it wasn’t just a volleyball week. Here’s our Magnificent Seven for a memorable Week 4. Keep in mind that of these seven athletes, one from each school will be chosen for the Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week and the Orange Panther of the Week. Those choices will be revealed tomorrow.

1. Julie Altieri: In a 3-2 win for Cedar Ridge over Orange on Thursday, Altieri had eight aces, seven kills, nine digs and 28 assists. She also had the game-winning ace on match point to secure the Red Wolves’ first win over the Lady Panthers since 2016. It was their first win over Orange since 2015.
2. Brandon Garcia: Though the Cedar Ridge men’s soccer team had a disappointing week with losses to Bartlett Yancey and Northwood, Garcia continues to excel. He now has a seven-game scoring streak to start the season. Garcia scored on a penalty kick against Northwood on Thursday in Hillsborough. Against the Buccaneers in Yanceyville, he scored the equalizing goal as the Red Wolves fought back from a 2-nil deficit to even the match against B-Y.
3. Nora Sauers: Earned wins in singles and in doubles as Cedar Ridge women’s tennis team defeated Vance County to improve to 6-3 overall on the season. Sauers also won two matches against Northern Durham on September 3.
4. Courtney Edwards: Six tackles, including one for a loss, for the Orange football team’s 21-13 win over Williams on Friday night. Edwards also scored his first varsity touchdown on a 4th-and-inches from the Williams 4-yard line late in the first half after Orange fell behind 13-0. It was Edwards’ first touchdown since his Pop Warner days.
5. Elliott Woods: The Orange wingback/linebacker was a iron man against Williams. He had a team-high eleven tackles. Woods also had a key 19-yard reception on a 3rd-and-4 early in the third quarter, which was Orange’s first 3rd down conversion in the game. Woods finished with 59 yards from scrimmage.
6. Halle Boroski: The Orange women’s tennis team defeated Southern Alamance and Northern Durham last week. Boroski won at #6 singles 6-3, 6-4, then teamed with Ashley Behringer to win at #3 doubles 8-4. Against the Patriots, Boroski captured her singles match 6-3, 6-4. In doubles, once again she teamed with Behringer to win 8-4.
7. Avery Miller: The Orange sophomore outside hitter had a team-high eleven kills as the Orange volleyball team defeated Vance County 3-0 in the first-ever match between the two teams. Miller also had four digs. Earlier this year, Miller had eleven kills against Person.