Scotland girls soccer falls to Richmond

LAURINBURG —The Scotland girls soccer team was defeated by the archrival Richmond Raiders in a 9-0 final on Tuesday night at Scotland High School. The Scots fall to 0-6 (0-6 in conference games) on the season with the loss while the Raiders improve to 4-6-1 (2-3 against conference opponents) on the season with their second straight win (2-0-1 overall in their last three games).

Despite the shutout loss, Head Coach Jeremy White saw a good number of positive things from his squad. He gave a lot of credit to the grit showed by his team as they fought through numerous injuries and illnesses while having to move some players into positions they weren’t accustomed to as a result.

“I’m proud of the effort put in, I told them this was definitely their best game I’ve seen in the last two or three weeks and we didn’t have everybody and were playing out of different positions,” White said. “Can’t look at the scoreboard, we’re stronger than the scoreboard. The score doesn’t define us, our abilities, our determination and our dedication define us.”

Richmond would get four of their nine goals in the first half and the other five within 24:27 of game time in the second half. The goals within the first 40 minutes were pretty evenly spread out with the first occurring 5:44 into the game (34:16 mark), the second coming 10:09 later (24:07 mark), the third happening with 15:41 left in the half and the fourth coming with just 83 seconds left until the break.

The Raiders’ first goal of the second half came after just over two minutes had passed (37:52 mark) before there was a gap until their sixth tally at the 21:46 mark. Richmond then got their final three goals in quick succession to close the game out at 19:19, 17:06 and 15:33. The game was stopped after the last goal due to the score.

Erin Drumwright and Mariana Gonzalez each had two goals for the Raiders while Makayla Brown, Mavery Hooks, Yarely Bollaz Vargas, Kellie Gomez and Ashly Gonzalez each had one. Hanna Smith and Colbie Covington each had an assist.

Caycee Bert and Addison Anderson split the time in goal for Scotland with Bert starting the game while Anderson played 30 minutes. Bert made seven saves (one on a penalty kick) and allowed four goals while Anderson made eight saves and allowed five goals. Sa’Quanna Bostic would stop all three Scotland shots on goal.

Scotland will remain at home for their next two games, starting on Friday night against the Hoke County Bucks (4-8 overall and 1-5 in conference games) at 6 p.m. The Scots lost their earlier season meeting to the Bucks by a score of 3-0 back on March 4 in Raeford. Prior to beating Red Springs 1-0 on Monday, Hoke County had lost six straight games.

White feels like there has been a lot of growth and improvement from his team since their season opening loss to the Bucks. With both teams now in very different places from nearly a month ago, White is approaching the contest as a totally new game with two new teams involved.

“We’ve grown a lot since then, we’ve changed our formation that we play in and our starting lineup all around,” White said. “That game was a close game for a lot of these girls’ first time being on the soccer field. When they come here to Scotland they’re going to be looking at a different team.”