Moore County’s three high school football teams are hoping to bounce back from last week’s conference losses.

The Pinecrest football team (6-1, 0-1 Southeastern Conference) will be challenged by the most diversified offense it has seen this season when it entertains Scotland County (5-2, 1-0) tonight on Military Appreciation Night.

Kwashawn Quick saw some action at quarterback for the Scots in 2008 as a freshman when the Patriots’ 31-7 victory was their first over the team from Laurinburg since 1996. The Patriots were 31-13 winners last year with Quick as the starter.

Playing a difficult schedule, Quick and many of his teammates from those young squads that both went 2-9 have come of age under third-year coach Chip Williams. Their opponents are a combined 30-12. They own a win over a 6-1 Seventy-First team and one of their losses was against 7-0 Jack Britt.

In last week’s 28-14 victory over Purnell Swett, running back Tony McRae scored on an 81-yard run. The previous week, Quick passed for 153 yards and ran for 131 in a 45-26 win over Greenville Rose.

The Patriots dug a 16-0 hole for themselves in last week’s 30-20 loss to Lumberton. Quarterback Kyle Ocheltree with 93 yards on 20 carries and Damion Pride with 150 on 16 attempts helped fuel a comeback that fell short. Pride has rushed for 686 yards on 93 attempts and scored 10 touchdowns this season.

A defense that has helped the Patriots enjoy a 25-15 turnover advantage over opponents, and the kicking game led by Dillon Maples, could play a big part in tonight’s outcome.

U.P. Excited for Homecoming

Tonight is homecoming at Union Pines as the Viking football team takes on the Westover Wolverines in a Cape Fear Valley Conference clash.

The Vikes enter the contest with an overall record of 2-6, and are winless at 0-3 in CFVC action.

After being blown out in its three previous bouts, Union Pines was actually still very much alive midway into the third quarter last week. But an interception took all the steam out of the Vikings’ sails as they fell 46-11 to Western Harnett (1-6, 1-1 CFVC).

Union Pines committed four turnovers in the game and had no viable running attack, amassing a total of 88 yards rushing on 24 carries. Despite his team’s recent play, head coach Ryan Riggan said he hopes the Vikings will come out and respond for four quarters.

“I’d love to see us start fast for a change instead of having so many problems and mistakes early in the contest,” he said. “I think if we can do that a couple of times we can be competitive the entire game. We’ve had a pretty good week of practice so the guys know what they have to do and who they have to stop to get the job done.”

The Wolverines are currently 1-1 in league play and 2-5 overall. Westover defeated Southern Lee 21-14 in week one of CFVC play and fell 17-6 to Douglas Byrd last week.

In other action around the CFVC, Douglas Byrd (6-2, 1-2) travels to Western Harnett, while Overhills (2-5, 2-0) hosts Southern Lee (1-7, 1-2) and Gray’s Creek (6-2, 3-0) has a bye.

Currently at 3-0, Gray’s Creek is half a game in front of Overhills (2-0) for the top spot in the CFVC. Western and Westover are tied for third place at 1-1. Southern Lee and Byrd (both 1-2) are tied for the fifth spot, while Union Pines is in last place at 0-3 in the league standings.

The kickoff for tonight’s homecoming game between Union Pines and Westover is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

North Moore Travels to EM

The North Moore football team heads to Yadkin Valley Conference rival East Montgomery tonight in search of its first victory of the season.

Though the Mustangs (0-7, 0-3 YVC) have yet to get that first “W,” head coach Greg Simmons has seen a steady improvement from his team each week. He said it has had another good week of practice.

“The kids came in focused this week, I think, trying to build on that first half [against North Rowan last week] and the things that we did right in that first half and get rid of the things we did wrong in that second half.”

North Moore hung in with North Rowan last week, entering halftime tied at 14 before struggling in the second frame and falling 42-14. Simmons said that the team has continued to focus on limiting its mistakes and getting more consistency.

“That’s the big thing right now,” he said. “We’re doing good things and then we’ll do some bad things. We gotta get more consistency.”

East Montgomery enters the game with a 5-2 overall record and 2-1 YVC mark. Last week, the Eagles edged South Stanly 15-14 on a 35-yard field goal with just over 10 seconds remaining. Simmons expected them to be fired up for their homecoming night.

“They’re a fast team and they’ve got a really good tailback and a really good fullback,” he said. “Their game’s predicated on them being able to run the ball, and we gotta be prepared for that and cranked up for that.”

The Mustangs are nursing a couple of injuries, but Simmons said he expected to have everyone back for tonight’s game.

Contact Charlie Bergmann at cbergmann@nc.rr.com. Contact F.W. Manning at frankwm2@gmail.com. Contact John Krahnert III at sports@thepilot.com.