Senior P.J. Schmittdiel had four assists Wednesday to help the Union Pines boys’ soccer team defeat Douglas Byrd 7-1 at Woodrow Wilhoit Stadium in Cameron.

With the league victory the homestanding Vikings improved to 4-2 in the 3-A Cape Fear Valley Conference standings and 4-10 overall. Union Pines closed out the week Thursday with a home CFVC match against Westover.

Goals by seniors Tristan Matthews and Adam Howard in the 32nd and 36th minute, respectively, gave Union Pines a 2-0 halftime lead. Schmittdiel was credited with assists on both scores.

Leonardo Aragon pushed the Vike lead to 3-0 when he found the back of the net on an assist from Riley O’Neil in the 51st minute. Douglas Byrd then scored its lone goal of the game in the 54th minute of action to trim Union Pines’ edge to 3-1

Less than five minutes later Schmittdiel collected his third assist of the match on a pass to striker Rafael Pastrana that led to a goal. Then Matthews and Howard each scored their second goals of the tilt as the Vike lead swelled to 6-1 with seven minutes remaining in the match.

Schmittdiel picked up assist No. 4 on the night in the 77th minute by setting up Trey Recabo for a goal to cap the scoring.

After the match, Vike head coach Mike Mibb was encouraged by how his squad maintained possession.

“This time we did not give up ball possession to Douglas Byrd as in the first meeting,” said Mibb. “We did much better in our finishing in this match but did miss a number of very good opportunities.”

The Vikings defeated Douglas Byrd (0-9, 0-6 CFVC) by a 3-0 margin earlier this season in Fayetteville.

“We moved players around quite a bit during the match,” Mibb said, “but still maintained good control. We maintained good pressure throughout the match and in turn Douglas Byrd was not able to pressure us very much.

“Overall the starting 11 demonstrated good improvement in movement off-the-ball and during possession by limiting our touches and moving the ball accurately and quickly.”