Junior Ellie Buck dribbles the ball up field in the first half of Wednesday’s game against Lumberton.
                                 Neel Madhavan | Daily Journal

Junior Ellie Buck dribbles the ball up field in the first half of Wednesday’s game against Lumberton.

Neel Madhavan | Daily Journal

<p>Senior Caroline Whitley jostles for the ball with a Lumberton defender Wednesday evening.</p>
                                 <p>Neel Madhavan | Daily Journal</p>

Senior Caroline Whitley jostles for the ball with a Lumberton defender Wednesday evening.

Neel Madhavan | Daily Journal

ROCKINGHAM — Set pieces were critical in helping the Richmond Senior High School varsity girls’ soccer team break through a determined Lumberton defense Wednesday night.

The Lady Raiders (8-2) scored both its goals off corner kicks in a 2-0 win over the Lady Pirates.

Throughout the game, Lumberton (1-7-2) seemed content to stay compact and packed in defensively and play behind the ball. Richmond spent the vast majority of the first half possessing the ball between the halfway line and Lumberton’s 18-yard box, but couldn’t break through and find a goal.

“That was kind of our Achilles heel tonight,” said head coach Chris Larsen. “We hit the frame, we had tons of chances, but we just couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net early. I told them at halftime, once you break the ice and get one in there, hopefully they’ll start falling.”

After going into halftime scoreless, Richmond finally broke through Lumberton’s defense in the 53rd minute. Junior Ellie Buck launched a corner kick into the 18-yard box, but Lumberton’s defense was able to block three shots as the ball bounced around the penalty area. Off a ricochet, the ball finally rebounded to junior Kaitlyn Huff, who slotted it past Lumberton goalkeeper Brianna Richardson.

Richmond’s second goal came in the 73rd minute off another corner kick from Buck. She lofted a high ball to the near post that found the head of senior forward Jayla McDougald, who put it in the top left corner of the goal.

“Me and Kaitlyn have been talking a lot about making runs on corners instead of standing still, so we both did and one of us finally got a head on it,” McDougald said.

Buck said she was able to get the corner kick high enough over the Lumberton defenders’ heads and drop it in at the near post, so McDougald could put a head to it.

“We work on (set pieces) basically every day,” Buck said. “It’s just a matter of doing it multiple times and then it just comes like a second nature.”

McDougald added that Lumberton spent most of the game man-marking and double teaming her and Huff, so to counter that and keep the Lady Pirates’ defense off balance, she said they switched positions periodically throughout the game when they were on the field at the same time.

“I let them rotate back and forth,” Larsen said. “Kaitlyn started the year at center-mid with Jayla out on the left. Last season, Kaitlyn was a left-mid with Jayla up top. We kind of went with that against Jack Britt the other night and it worked out. So we went back to it and moved them around to see how Lumberton would adjust.

“I thought they did a good job marking Kaitlyn — I think (Lumberton head coach) Kenny (Simmons) put one of his better defenders on Kaitlyn when she was outside and did a good job containing her a little bit. Those two girls have scored most of our goals. They work well together, and other coaches see that. So we’re going to have to deal with it and other girls are going to have to step up and we’re slowly but surely doing that.”

Due to their defensive play, the Lady Pirates relied on long balls to help spur a counterattack goal, but Richmond’s high defensive line, combined with senior goalkeeper Kelly Hoffman playing far forward to clear long balls helped Richmond maintain the clean sheet.

“Our formation can kind of adapt — it’s just a matter of pushing up 5-10 yards or we can drop back,” Larsen said. “We just tried to play our game, and it was sloppy, but we got out of here with a victory so we’ll take it and move on.”

Next up for Richmond is a trip to Hoke County on Thursday.

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Reach Neel Madhavan at 910-817-2675 ext. 2751 or [email protected]. Follow on Twitter at @NeelMadhavan.