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There was adversity for Orange football before kickoff against its crosstown rival on Friday night.

Then they lost their best player.

Payton Wilson, an All-State linebacker who has played five different positions this season, suffered a right knee injury on the opening kickoff against Cedar Ridge. He emerged from the Cedar Ridge field house on crutches before the end of the first quarter.

The Panthers were already without leading rusher Marvante Beasley, who is still awaiting an MRI after being carried off the field on a stretcher two weeks ago against Hillside.

Wilson and Beasley are scheduled for MRIs on Monday.

With Orange coming off a loss to Northwood that ended its 16-game Big 8 Conference winning streak, the Red Wolves had a glimmer of hope to beat Orange for the first time since 2011.

Instead, several Panthers who lurked in the shadows most of this season had career performances.

Quarterback Brendan Huss, Orange’s third starting quarterback this season, came on in place of Wilson and went 14-of-19 for 277 yards and four touchdowns. Senior wide receiver Kendall Whitted, who had 107 receiving yards through eight games, had 104 yards and two touchdowns in the first quarter.

The Panthers (7-2, 4-1) defeated the Red Wolves 49-0 at Red Wolves Stadium. Orange retained the victory bell with its fifth consecutive win over Cedar Ridge. Since losing to Cedar Ridge 49-43 in 2011, the Panthers have outscored the Red Wolves 266-29 in its five victories.

In Orange’s most lopsided win of the year, the Panthers piled up a season-high 465 yards total offense.

The Red Wolves (1-9, 0-5) received 69 yards rushing from junior quarterback Freddie Francis, who made his sixth straight start after regular starter Phil Berger was lost for the season after suffering a concussion against Cardinal Gibbons on September 15.

With 4:12 remaining in the first quarter, Huss hooked up with Whitted for a screen pass which turned into a 47-yard catch-and-run after a strong block from left tackle Brandon Carden.

Huss and Whitted would connect again on the subsequent drive. Whitted caught a 57-yard touchdown pass against a Cedar Ridge secondary missing its best defender, Kevin Wright, who missed the game because of a knee injury. Morgan Paschall 2-point Run bottled Orange ahead 14-0.

Milton Purcell picked off a Harvey pass and was knocked out of bounds before going into the end zone. Junior Hunter Pettiford punched in the touchdown from 2-yards out as Orange lead 21-0 at the half.

It took Orange only two plays and 46 seconds to romp 77 yards for a touchdown to open the second half. After Paschall streaked around left end for 24 yards, Huss tossed a gorgeous pass to Noah Robinson for a 49-yard touchdown. It was the first varsity touchdown for Robinson, who came into the game with four catches on the season.

Huss hit Sebastian Flores and Jeremiah Rawley on consecutive completions to set up a 24-yard touchdown pass to Colin Guentensberger to extend Orange’s lead to 35-0

In the fourth quarter, Tre Richardson rumbled 66 yards before being hauled down to turf at the 1-yard line. Richardson scored his first touchdown of the season on the next play.

Cedar Ridge’s Jake DeFranco had 20 carries for 57 yards. The Red Wolves will wrap up the season next week at Hillside. Orange hosts Chapel Hill on Senior Night at Auman Stadium.

ORANGE 42, CEDAR RIDGE 0

ORANGE—�14  7    14    7-42

CEDAR RIDGE-0    0    0   0-0

O-Kendall Whitted 47 pass from Brendan Huss (kick failed)

O-Whitted 57 pass from Huss (Morgan Paschal run)

O-Hunter Pettiford 2 run (Francisco McKinley kick)

O-Noah Robinson 49 pass from Huss (McKinley kick)

O-Colin Guentensberger 24 pass from Huss (McKinley kick)

O-Tre Richardson 1 run (Tucker Krogstad kick)

RUSHING: ORANGE (Richardson 4-72 TD, Paschall 8-69, Pettiford 7-52 TD, Travis Ray 1-20, Milton Purcell 1-12, Guentensberger 1-12, Huss 4-3). CEDAR RIDGE (Freddie Francis 13-84, Jake DeFranco 21-64, Dante DeFranco 2-10)

PASSING: ORANGE (Huss 14-19 277 4 TD, Tanner Long 0-2) CEDAR RIDGE (Harvey 3-18 8  INT)

RECEIVING: ORANGE (Jonathan Rawles 3-28, Purcell 3-26, Sebastian Flores 3-26, Whitted 2-104 2TD, Robinson 1-49 TD, Guentensberger 1-24 TD, Joe Kiger 1-19) CEDAR RIDGE (J. DeFranco 2-13, D. DeFranco 1-(-5)

Brendan Huss wasn’t even supposed to start at quarterback against Cedar Ridge on Friday night. But after Payton Wilson was injured on the opening kickoff, Huss had the biggest night of his career, going 14-of-19 for 275 yards and four touchdowns as Orange defeated Cedar Ridge 42-0.

It was a long time coming, but Orange senior wide receiver Kendall Whitted had his first 100-yard receiving game on Friday night. In fact, he did it in the 1st quarter against Cedar Ridge, amassing 104 yards on two receptions, both for touchdowns as Orange defeated the Red Wolves 42-0.

Ryan Sellers is going to Hawaii.

Not for vacation. Not for college football, yet. Instead, he’ll be going to the NoKaOi enior Bowl in Honolulu July 3-10.

The event is designed for college players to spend tie on and off the field with college coaches, developing a lasting relationship that will help at the college level. 10-12 college coaches from across the country are expected to attend the event.

Sellers is in his third season as a varsity starter along the defensive line, which has been the backbone of Orange’s consecutive Big 8 Championships and an undefeated regular season in 2016, the first at Orange since 1978.

In his career, Sellers leads Orange over the past three seasons with 31 sacks. This season, he has ten sacks. He led the squad in his junior season with 15, outperforming teammate Stone Edwards, who wound up at Vanderbilt as a (probably) redshirt freshman. The two had a personal competition to see who would wind up with the most sacks, which Sellers won. He has 15 tackles for loss for the season and 62 for his career.

Sellers is also a reserve forward for the Orange Basketball team.

Bryan Torres was one of 12 Orange soccer players hoping for a victory over Northern Durham on senior night Wednesday. Instead, the Knights upended the Panthers 3-1. The only Panther goal came from Torres. Orange finished 3rd in the Big 8 Conference and will await word about their destination for the 3A State Playoffs, which will be announced on Monday.

It appears the first state playoff game at Orange Socer Stadium will have to wait.

The Orange Panthers could have tied East Chapel Hill for 2nd place on Wednesday night by simply defeating Northern Durham, a task the Panthers easily accomplished last month with a 4-2 decision at Armstrong Soccer Stadium in Durham.

Instead, Northern scored twice in the opening 20 minutes, and held off a late charge to defeat the Panthers 3-1 on Wednesday night, ruining senior night for Orange’s 12 players competing in Hillsborough for the final time.

Orange ends the regular season 13-6-2 in the regular season, 10-4 in the Big 8. The Panthers will almost certainly qualify for the 64-team 3A state playoff field, which will be announced Monday. However, they will most likely be on the road to open play.

Senior Bryan Torres knocked in his own rebound for the Panthers’ only goal with 5:32 remaining in regulation. Northern pulled that goal back scoring on a quick counter for the final tally.

Orange put themselves in position to win its first-ever conference championship by winning a school-record nine consecutive games, but ended the regular season losing three of its last four.

Cedar Ridge’s regular season ended in disappointing fashion on Tuesday night, falling to Southern Durham 2-1 at Red Wolves Stadium. Than Aung, in his final game, scored the Red Wolves’ only goal on a penalty kick.

It was the final game for Cedar Ridge seniors Aung, Jake Brown, A.J. Perez, Henry Mellor and goalkeeper Jesus Yanez.

The Red Wolves end the season 5-15-1, 4-9-1 in the Big 8.

Not even Cedar Ridge’s first girls tennis conference championship team had a player that qualified for the state tournament.

However, Red Wolves freshman Ivy Garner has accomplished something that no other Cedar Ridge girls tennis player has: she will play for an individual state championship this weekend.

On Saturday, Garner finished as the runner up in the 3-A Mideast Regional Championships. Garner advanced to the Regional Championship match, where she fell to Carter Juergens of Northern Guilford 6-3, 6-0.

Garner won her opening singles match over April Harrington of Grays Creek 6-1, 6-0. In the quarterfinals, Garner knocked off Emma Hilburn of Northern Guilford 6-1, 6-0. In the semfinals, Garner won a the only three-set match of the championship round, beating Northern Guilford’s Emily Callahan 7-5, 2-6, 6-4.

Garner will be the #2 seed from the Mideast for the state championships on Saturday at the Burlington Tennis Center. The 16-player tournament features Garner taking on Madison Cullpher of D.H. Conley in the opening round.

Cedar Ridge’s Olivia Ward also qualified for regionals, falling to River Britt of Union Pines 6-2, 6-4. The Cedar Ridge doubles team of Kate Milner and Brianna Celine lost in the opening round to Hailee Haymore and Charlotte Craven of Union Pines 6-0, 6-2.

The East Chapel Hill doubles team of Savannah Bright and Stela Joksimovic captured the Mideast Regional Championship by beating Haymore and Craven in the championship 7-5, 6-1.

Cedar Ridge senior Julia Mills had a solid finish at the 3A Central Regional Golf Meet last week. She posted an 18 hole score of 105, placing her just eight strokes from moving on to the state match. Mills medaled in every match for the Cedar Ridge girls golf team this season, and finished the conference season with a 51.8 nine hole average, which put her in 14th place out of 32 golfers in the Big 8 Conference. Mills is a Red Wolf through and through, as she is also an assistant trainer for the Cedar Ridge athletic department and plans to make a living in that field once she graduates in June.

Despite competing without its top five runners, the Cedar Ridge girls cross country team finished third at the Big 8 Cross Country Championships at Chapel Hill High School on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Orange boys cross country squad finished third in its competition, led by junior Kyle Van Tubbergh, who finished 11th overall.

Orange and Cedar Ridge had strong finishes from underclassmen in the girls meet. Sophomore Allison Musty was the top finisher for the Red Wolves, completing the 5,000 meter course at a time of 20:09.40. She finished 13th overall. Musty’s classmate, Ella Nissler, came in 13th with a time of 20:45.90.

Orange’s top finisher was freshman Sascha Godfrey, who crossed the finish line 18th overall at a time of 20:51.50. Cedar Ridge freshman Anne Morrell came in 19th at 20:56.40, ahead of Orange sophomore Ava Heffernan, who came in 20th at 21:08.50. Red Wolves freshman Ariadne Solis finished 21st.

Orange freshman Abby Dease, the daughter of baseball coach Dean Dease, came in 27th. Panther sophomore Katie Cook registered a 29th place finish.

Chapel Hill captured the girls’ individual and team championship. The Tigers had 15 points. East Chapel Hill finished 2nd with 63 points. Cedar Ridge was 3rd at 91 points. Orange was fifth at 112 points.

Chapel Hill’s Katherine Dokholyan won the individual conference championship with a time of 17:55. It was a day dominated by the Tigers, who had the top six finishers in the girls’ race.

In the boys meet, Orange finished 3rd with 98 points. Cedar Ridge finished 5th with 106 points, only five points behind Northwood.

Van Tubbergh completed the course with a personal best time of 16:57. Cedar Ridge’s top finisher was junior Rory Legg-Bell, who came in 14th at 17:17.30. Brian Finch, in his final conference meet, came in 16h for the Red Wolves. Orange junior Sam Rasinske finished 17th at 17:26.20, another personal best.

Orange senior Andrew Sollars crossed the finish line 24th. Cedar Ridge’s Alistar Stewart came in 27th. Orange sophomore Wesley Morris finished 28th, while Panther wrestler Mitchell Askew came in 29th. Cedar Ridge’s Eli Tilley finished 30th.

Chapel Hill had the top eight finishers in the boys race. The individual champion was senior Ryan Combs, who finished the course at 15:37.20.