RALEIGH — The Richmond Raiders men’s soccer team traveled the 80-minute drive up US 1 to try and make a final playoff push for their seniors.

However, the Raleigh Broughton Capitals had other things in mind as they sent the Raiders home from the NCHSAA playoffs with a 7-2 loss.

The Capitals, ranked number 12 in the state, didn’t waste much time getting their offense going as they scored 37:11, 36:19, 31:04, 25:30, and 24:37 marks of the first half to jump out to a 5-0 lead over the Raiders.

The Raiders would not be denied, however, as Zach Shilen set up Davis Hilton to put a header past the Capitals keeper with 8:58 left in the first half.

It looked as if the Raiders had found their offense when Zach Shilen once again made a great assist to Jonathan Thames to bring the Raiders within three of the Capitals with 6:08 left in the half.

The Raiders would make defensive adjustments throughout the first half as they would carry the 5-2 deficit into the break.

Richmond coach Bennie Howard told his players at the half that they were not out of the game, and to keep fighting, a sentiment shared by many of the players on the field and the parents watching from the stands.

The Capitals were not finished with their scoring efforts, and would tack on two more goals in the second half to put the game away.

“I’m proud of the way that my players played tonight,” Howard said.

“This is the twelfth ranked team in the state and we hung in there and found the entire match,” Howard added.

For many of the Raiders this will be their final game to don the green and gold, but many will move on to play soccer at the next level in college.

For the remaining players it will be a long year as they try to figure out what went wrong, and how to make next year even more of a success on the soccer field.

“We have nothing to be ashamed of, we could have given up when we were down five goals to nothing, but we fought back and these guys can hang their hats on that,” Howard said. \Contact sports reporter Travis Anderson at 997-3111 ext. 44 or via e-mail at tanderson@yourdailyjournal.com