AHOSKIE – The boys’ soccer team at Ridgecroft School likely faces hardships in the year ahead, but Coach Aaron Martin still has high expectations.

Seven starters graduated off of last year’s team, and this year’s will be made up off four seniors and the rest are eighth and ninth graders.

&uot;We’re going to be extremely young, but we’ve just finished up a team camp with Golden Touch soccer camps. They had a former Guatemalan team member as well as a pro player from England… they worked well with the guys,&uot; Martin said.

He continued, &uot;It’s just going to be a matter of assimilating the younger guys to play at the speed of a varsity team.&uot;

Ridgecroft will kick off the year August 17-18 at the 2nd Annual Ridgecroft Invitational tournament.

&uot;We’ve got some pretty talented teams coming, with Pasquotank County High School, Fayettville Christian (a 2-A private school), and Lawrence Academy,&uot; Martin stated.

The tournament will start Friday (August 17) with Ridgecroft matching up against Lawrence and Pasquotank playing Fayettville.

Winners of each game Friday will spar in the championship game held Saturday.

A consolation game will also be played.

The Rams will take on Hertford County High School August 21 at 5 p.m. at HCHS.

Their first Coastal Plains Independent Conference match is scheduled for August 24 at Kerr-Vance Academy.

A home game against Lawrence Academy is slotted for August 28 at 4 p.m.

The Rams will then travel to Wayne Country Day for another conference battle on August 30 before meeting with Hertford County again September 6 at 4 p.m. on their home turf.

September 11 will see a conference matchup with Faith Christian, another home game, to be held at 4:45 p.m.

The boys then go to Lawrence Academy on the August 13 and Epiphany School the next day for two more games.

Oakwood School is on the schedule to play the Rams at home September 18 at 4 p.m.

Ridgecroft travels to Greenfield the following day for a 7 p.m. conference game.

September 21, they are to play Terra Ceia School at home at 4:30 p.m., then Pungo Christian on the August 24 at 4 p.m.

The Rams host conference rival Wayne Country Day again September 25 at 4:45 p.m., then play another home conference game against Greenfield on September 28 at 5 p.m.

They travel to Pungo Christian on October 1 at 4 p.m., then host a home conference game against Kerr-Vance the next day at 4:45.

October 5 shows the Rams going to Faith Christian for the final conference matchup of the season.

Terra Ceia and Epiphany Schools are scheduled to come to Ahoskie October 8 and 9, respectively.

The Rams close out the season at Oakwood School on October 11 at 4 p.m.

&uot;We play undoubtedly the hardest 1-A conference in the state among private schools,&uot; Martin stated.

He went on, &uot;Our goal is to be at the 500-mark at the end of the season in-conference… I do have some high expectations; it’s a very coachable group and I think we’re going to be okay. We’re just going to need a lot of leadership from the four seniors this year.&uot;

Last year, the team finished in the final eight in the state. Referring to that, Martin said, &uot;Certainly it would be good to get back to that mark, but we’re just going to have to take it slow and see how things go.&uot;