Red Devils wrap up at least share of soccer title

Three seniors scored goals -- Lucas Hernandez two and Gabe Crider and Jacob Harkins one each – to lead Newton-Conover High to a victory that clinched at least a share of the Catawba Valley Athletic 2A boys’ soccer title.

The Red Devils beat visiting Bunker Hill 5-0 on Monday night to improve to 12-0-0 in the league, and they have two conference matches to go – Wednesday at Draughn and Thursday at East Burke.

South Iredell, the only team that could tie Newton-Conover, is 11-2-0 in the league after a 7-1 victory on Monday night over Draughn. The Vikings’ regular-season finale is at home Wednesday night against Bandys.

The fifth goal for Newton-Conover in Monday night’s win came from Eli Cordes.

John Tate had two assists and Kevin Thorpe, Greyson Frye and Hernandez had one each for the Red Devils.

Senior keeper Hunter Nestor had three saves for Newton-Conover.

Rodlopho Arellano made six saves for the Bears, 1-10-2 in the CVAC 2A.

Bandys 7, Maiden 0

Mario Ramirez scored twice and goalie Thomas Simmons supplied a shutout as the Trojans won at home to stay in third place in the CVAC 2A.

Caleb Upchurch, Ryan Eades, Jake Sawyer, Ben Wagner and Kyle Enyeart added one goal each for Bandys (9-7-1, 9-4-0).

Eades and Sawyer each had two assists for the Trojans as they dropped the Blue Devils to 3-13-2 overall and 2-10-1 in the league.

West Caldwell 5, East Burke 0

Two goals each from Gabriel Tobias and Ivan Jantes lifted the Warriors to a CVAC 2A victory over the Cavs in Icard.

Tony Garcia made five saves for West Caldwell, in fourth place at 8-5-0 in the conference with one match to go. The Warriors are at home Wednesday to face Bunker Hill.

 Alexander Central 5, South Caldwell 3

T.J. Norton scored four goals to lead the Cougars to a Northwestern 3A-4A victory in Hudson.

Carlos Tovar scored twice for the Spartans, who finished 0-12-0 in the conference, and Nicky Shields had the other goal.

Jonas Watts had three assists for Alexander Central, 2-9-0 in the league heading into its regular-season finale Wednesday at home against Hibriten.

Freedom 1, Chase 0

At Chase, sophomore Maco Juarez Son scored on an assist by Robby Goodchild as Freedom shut out the Trojans and wrapped up a state playoff spot.

Freedom (13-5-2, 8-2-0) locked up second place in the South Mountain Athletic 2A-3A by winning.

Senior goalie Matthew Watson had three saves and combined with Andrew Ayers, Jordan Summers and Eric Burnett for the shutout.

VOLLEYBALL

N-C, St. Stephens at home in the playoffs

The second round of the state playoffs are Tuesday, with seven teams from Greater Hickory area conferences playing.

The two home matches on Tuesday for area schools are East Lincoln (10-9) at Newton-Conover (24-5) at 5 p.m. in 2A and Asheville Erwin (3-20) at St. Stephens (18-4), also at 5 p.m., in 3A.

Bandys (17-3) travels to play Piedmont (24-2) at 7 p.m. in 2A, while Hickory (3-14) goes to Franklin (21-2) for a 7 p.m. match and Fred T. Foard (17-6) plays at Enka (18-6).

In 4A, Northwestern 3A-4A champion Watauga (19-7) entertains A.C. Reynolds (14-10) at 6 p.m. and Alexander Central (11-9) goes to McDowell (18-4) for a 6 p.m. match.

TENNIS

3 area teams still in running for the title

Three Greater Hickory area schools are still alive as the girls’ dual-team tennis state tournament plays its second round Tuesday.

Hickory (16-2) will be at home against Harding, a wild-card entry, at 4 p.m. on Tuesday in 3A.

In 2A, Bunker Hill (16-5) travels to Cuthbertson (11-1) and CVAC 2A champion Maiden (19-2) goes to unbeaten Shelby (16-0).