Richmond senior center Gonzalo Gonzalez fights for possession with Scotland junior Josh Smith at midfield on Monday night.
James Potts | Richmond County Daily Journal
ROCKINGHAM— The Fighting Scots soccer team fell to archrival Richmond 4-2 on Monday night. Scotland fell to 2-6-2 (0-6 in conference games) on the season with the loss while the Raiders picked up their first conference victory and improved to 2-9-2 (1-3-1 vs conference opponents).
Thanks to a pair of goals by senior forward Noah Gil and a strong performance by goalkeeper Adrian Padron, the Raiders earned their first win since Aug. 12, their season opener against Piedmont.
The Scots could not stop a red-hot start from Richmond senior Noah Gil scoring a pair of goals in quick succession. The first coming off a pass from fellow senior Landon Sumerlin and the second on a putback after the ball richocheted off the goal keeper’s hands. Still, Richmond got their contributions from all over the place with scores by junior center Erik Reichert and sophomore forward Daniel Gomez giving the Raiders an insurmountable lead heading into halftime.
Still, the night was not a total loss for Scotland. The Scots managed to make a game of it in the second half with a pair of successful penalty kicks by junior midfielder Eli Clark, but that was as close to victory as they would get as Richmond’s defense clamped down in the final minutes. Coach David Wright pointed out the competitive nature between the two teams as something that is always appreciated.
“We don’t practice like we play, we attack the ball and we’re aggressive during practice but when it comes to the game, we kind of settle down until the end of the game when it’s too late. It’s hard to get scores at the end of the game when we have certain things against us, and I won’t say what was against us, but we had opportunities. We had some things that was against us but I’ll keep those to myself,” Wright said. “I’ll be 50 next week, I’m a Richmond County native … both sides lost all of their games (in the SAC) but when we match up there is something that brings out the dog in both of us. It’s something that’s going to continue to go on probably until I’m dead and gone, but I love it. I love the competitiveness between Scotland and Richmond bring.”
The Scots will have a short turnaround with another conference matchup on the road against Hoke County Wednesday night at 6 p.m. The Bucks defeated Scotland 8-0 in Laurinburg back on Sept. 9.