[caption id="attachment_4590" align="alignleft" width="396"]
The varsity Lady Panther soccer team played Oxford Webb, a conference rival, Wednesday, April 10. The Panthers survived with a clean escape, gaining their first conference victory. The JV and varsity teams traveled to Eagle territory to play Eastern Alamance on Friday, April 11. Both teams came out with a loss after a hard-fought game.
Wednesday the varsity team kicked off an intense match against the Oxford Webb Warriors on their home turf. They came away unscathed with a 7-0 win. The Panthers scored two quick goals within the first 10 minutes of the game, and by the end of the half they had six goals, four of them scored by the Shinnick sisters, Rachel Shinnick with one and Becca Shinnick with the other three. Ashley Badstein, the starting keeper for OHS, had a shutout in the first half, and Becca Shinnick also had a clean break in goal in the second half, tipping the ball over the goal on a close shot from the Lady Warriors.
The Warriors held strong in the second half, only conceding one goal in the last 20 minutes of the half. The Panther’s seventh goal came from Kaela Lane, a junior, who finished a cross from out wide and headed it over the keeper into the goal. The game concluded at a win, 7-0, for the Lady Panthers. This is the third conference game that the Panthers have played, however this is their first conference victory. Rowan Jaynes, a sophomore center defender for the team, said, “I thought that we were very well prepared for this game. We were able to work on the things we needed to work on and build as a team.”
Friday the OHS Panthers suffered a tough defeat against Eastern Alamance. The JV team started, coming out with a strong offensive force. After 20 minutes of evenly matched competition, the Eagles squeezed through the Panther’s back line, scoring three goals, making the final score 3-0. In an interview with Maggie Asuncion, starting center mid for the OHS team, she said, “Our goal as a team is to win our final game.” Instead of dwelling on the defeat, they are focusing on improving for their final game against Cedar Ridge.
Following the first match, the varsity team kicked off at 6:45. Before the start of the game, Eastern Alamance held a moment of silence for Desmond Piccini, a student from their school who had recently passed away. In honor of Piccini, Eastern wore blue bows in their hair, and the OHS Panthers played with green wristbands on. From the very beginning, the game was full of physicality and fierce competition, with both teams fostering a rivalry. Eastern went ahead in the first half, scoring off of a cross with a header into the corner of the goal. The score remained stagnant until the final third of the game when the Eagles finalized the score at 3-0 with two additional goals. The Panthers, who had prepared for a rematch after an earlier defeat in the season, played a solid game, although the score didn’t reflect their effort.
At the end of the week, the Panthers came out with a conference victory, further pushing them ahead in the playoff standings. Although they suffered a tough loss from Eastern Alamance, they are deciding to focus their efforts on improving for the upcoming conference games.
Photo Credit: Brianna Hales. On Court 1 Jaden Vines plays against the number 1 seed from Northwood.[/caption]Men’s tennis here at Orange High School has started and is running strong early in the season. With a new head coach, Justin Webb, the team has experienced some major changes this season. Nonetheless the returning players, and even the new talent, are back and ready to compete. Coach Webb remains optimistic, “We will probably finish in the middle of the pack but we play in one of the best tennis conferences in the state of NC,” he says about his team. Webb also says he is feeling good about his returning players and his starting players. “ This is a group of competitors who want to win and go out and compete in every match,” he says about his starting players who include seniors Jaden Vines, first seed, and Corey Johnson, fourth seed, as well as a few sophomores.
Vines and Johnson are returning players but not the only seniors. Matt McLaughlin is a senior new to the team this year, but Webb remains optimistic about his contribution to the team. Vines and Johnson are returning for their fourth season at Orange and Coach Webb says he is looking forward to working with them as head coach.
When asked about his new position as head coach, Webb’s main worry, he says, is rebuilding the team. Webb says his big focus this year is building up some of the younger talent on the team and trying to recruit new players in coming years to keep the team strong and dependable.
As the season is off to a good start in practice, the big concern for the team now is their first match against local team Eastern Alamance. “I'm feeling pretty good about our first match” Webb says, “I think if our players come ready to challenge them we will be up to it and could get an early season win.”
Orange won the match overall 9-0 with a clear win against the Eastern Alamance Eagles. After the match Webb was very pleased with the win and is looking forward to a strong season with his players. As of now, the line up is strong and the rest of the season looks promising for the men’s tennis team.
The Panthers are bringing back a good set of seniors including Jordan Toney and Joe Piscitelli and sophomore phenoms Bryse Wilson and Brad Debo. Coming into his 31st year of coaching, Coach Dease stated the expectations are the same as any other year: “Compete in every game and make the playoffs.” When Toney was asked what the expectations are for the upcoming season, he responded confidently, “With our strong chemistry between each other this year, we think it will really help motivate us to win every game and take us deep into the playoffs... We have three goals: win the conference championship, make it through the state playoffs, and bring home the state championship.”
The Panthers started their season with a scrimmage on Monday, February 24, which started the season off well with a 9-7 victory against Southern Alamance High School.
The Panthers’ actual baseball season started on February 27 against Eastern Alamance. The team was working hard for a 3-1 win against the Eagles. The statistics of the game included senior Jordan Toney going four strong innings, giving up only one run, followed by strong relief with James Cunningham, a junior, and Bryse Wilson, a sophomore, getting the save to finish off the game. Senior Adam Gates, junior Josh Kiehle, and Wilson drove in all three runs.
This was an important win. Getting the first win of the season is always critical for a team's confidence and getting prepared for the next game. The Panthers hope to continue with what they think will be a strong season.