The Pinecrest girls finished first and the Patriot boys came in fourth at Saturday's Wendell Park Early Bird Invitational cross-country meet held in Wendell.

The Patriot girls finished with 64 points to 77 for second place Terry Sanford. Sophomore Jennie Cunningham was the first runner to cross the finish line for the Pats in the 5K race with a fifth place time of 20:43. Trey Lesane of Terry Sanford was the winner in 20:08.

Other Patriot runners figuring in the scoring were Alexa Zoellner, 10th (21:35), Mulloy Manning, 14th (21:49), Hayden Rudd, 17th (22:08) and Kara Zoellner, 23rd (22:32).

Senior Landon Sherwood finished eighth in 17:07 to lead Pinecrest in the boys' race won by William Bass of Nash Central in 15:57. South View was first with 51 points in the team results. Pinecrest's fourth place total was 101.

The top five for the Patriot boys included Connor Kelly, 10th (17:12), Tyler Clark, 26th (18:14), George Hayes, 28th (18:20) and Matt Harmody, 29th (18:23).

Freshman William Proulx of Pinecrest was the winner of the jayvee boys' race with a time of 18:24. In the girls' jayvee race, Jenna Woronoff (24:20) and Beth Hieronymus (24:26) came in second and third, respectively.

Patriot Golfers Win First Match

Sophomore Haley Crider earned medalist honors with a round of 85 on Monday to lead the Pinecrest girls to a victory in the first Southeastern Conference girls' golf match of the season.

Playing on the Foxfire Golf and Country Club West Course, Savannah Thompson shot an 88, Becky Henderson posted a 109 and Elaine Kearney shot a 124 to complete the Patriot team score of 406. Scotland County was second at 413 followed by Richmond Senior, 419 and Hoke County, 519. The runner-up for medalist honors was Emily Smith of Richmond with a score of 86.

Hoke will host next Tuesday's league match held at Bayonet at Puppy Creek in Raeford.

Mustang Kickers Win 6-2

The North Moore boys' soccer team defeated West Montgomery at home Monday with a 6-2 victory that head coach Michael Shamberger described as "ugly."

Noe Ramirez and Angel Luna each scored hat tricks for North Moore. Ramirez got his in the first half, while all three goals for Luna came in the second half.

Falling behind 1-0 in the opening minutes of the game, North Moore battled to a 3-2 advantage at the half. Luna's performance after halftime powered the Mustangs to the win.

"We played horribly in the first half and played better in the second half, but we didn't play anywhere near our potential," he said. "I guess it's one of those situations where coaches say at least we got the win."

Ramirez and Luna have been North Moore's go-to scorers early in the season.

"Angel is, I call him elusive," he said. "He just has an ability to shake the defender and he only needs a half of a step to be able to get a shot off. Most of the time when he shoots, it's on target.

"Noe is beginning to come into his own as far as scoring. Again, the last two years he has not played, so it's really nice to see him getting some shots in the goal. He's beginning to come up big and beginning to take some shots for 20 to 25 yards out and they're going on. That's nice to see."

The Mustangs (3-1-1) travel to East Montgomery Wednesday for their next match.