Fighting Scots accomplish small goals in losing effort to Raiders

LAURINBURG — Most coaches focus on small goals they want their team to achieve throughout a game or season. But most of the time, their team doesn’t succeed in completing them all.

For Scotland, they may not have gotten the result they wanted Monday against Richmond, but they met all their goals.

Although the Raiders came away with a 2-0 victory, Scotland head coach Orrick McDougald thought it was a “moral victory” for his team.

“I told them, ‘Let’s just not get mercied (mercy-ruled) today,’ and everything came together in a sense,” McDougald said. “They (Richmond) have beaten some good teams. But they did not beat us like that. I’m from Richmond County, but, like I told them, ‘Hey, I don’t like them today.’ I love the fact that we had them frustrated. We had a lot of opportunities that I was very happy about. I really like the fact that they played together. We started a little slack, but they started communicating, and I just enjoyed it.”

While not getting mercy-ruled was one of McDougald’s goals, another was getting more shot opportunities at the goal, which the Fighting Scots did.

“We had plenty of shots inside the goal on a corner kick,” McDougald said. “We don’t always get the chance to have opportunities like that. So, we get a little overexcited, and I think we just have to focus. I told them earlier in practice last week that when we get opportunities, we have to seize that moment; we have to seize every opportunity we can at goals with these good teams we’re playing.”

The first shot on goal for Scotland (1-6-1, 0-6 Sandhills Athletic Conference) came after Richmond took a 1-0 lead just under four minutes into the first half when defender Matteo Rubbiano scored on an assisted free kick from midfielder Jesus Castro. Looking to even the score in the 11th minute, Scotland midfielder Ciro Velasco fired a shot at Richmond goalkeeper Adrian Padron, but Padron stopped the ball.

Scotland didn’t record another shot on goal until under 10 minutes were left until halftime when forward Joshua Smith had open space, sweeper Myles Norton headed the ball off a corner kick, and midfielder Eli Clark had a penalty kick — but all three shots were saved.

“We had plenty of opportunities to shoot and score,” Scotland assistant coach Jordan Stone said. “The one thing we really need to work on is our touch. Our touches are vital for us. If we can get those touches down and get those passes straight and just make sure we’re running our formations right, I think it would be a lot simpler for them because they’re running themselves to death.”

The final goal McDougald challenged his team with was to continue putting up a valiant effort in the second half, unlike their last home game against Pinecrest, where they allowed seven second-half goals in a 9-0 rout.

“I told the guys, ‘This is the moment y’all have been waiting on. This is the opportunity. Look at the score, it’s 1-0 … and y’all got them (Richmond) frustrated,’” McDougald said about what he told his team at halftime. “That should be that moment for you to say, man, we can play with anybody.”

Richmond (6-5-1, 3-2-1 SAC) scored a goal in the ninth minute of the second half after a 30-yard laser by forward James Eason went into the top right corner. But the Raiders struggled to find any other offense in the half.

While Scotland’s defense was a positive, their offense didn’t get as many shots on goal in the final 40 minutes of play as they did in the first 40. McDougald said that’s part of his next set of goals he has for them.

“We’re not getting in position,” McDougald said. “We’re either overrunning the ball, or we’re not aggressive enough when it comes to fronting that defensive player on their end. And a lot of times, we stop, the ball goes past us, then we’re looking around in the air for the ball. We’ve just got to get in position on balls off our goal kicks.”

Jack Herr played the entire game in goal for the Fighting Scots.

Scotland hosts Hoke County on Wednesday.