LOCAL SPORTS ROUNDUP: Teams start to fall in playoffs

Football

■ Connor Benton threw three touch-down passes in No. 19 Wheatmore’s 46-36 loss to No. 14 East Surry in the first round of the 3-A state playoffs.

Juju Banks had a 4-yard touchdown run and Connor Allen kicked a 28-yard field goal.

Wheatmore (3-8) trailed 16-13 at halftime and tied the game in the third quarter on Allen’s field goal.

Benton threw touchdown passes of 7 and 69 yards to Kenny Hoover and 7 yards to Lane Cole.

Bentley Mills had a 78-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.

■Trinity, seeded No. 24, fell 68-0 to No. 9 Wallace-Rose Hill in the first round of the 3-A state playoffs played on Thursday night. The Bulldogs ended the season with a 1-10 record.

Boys Soccer

■ Emmitt Frazier made eight saves in No. 20 Wheatmore’s 7-0 loss to No. 13 Hendersonville in the first round of the 3-A state playoffs. The Warriors ended the season with a 4-14-3 record.

■ Saul Cortes-Aguirre scored two goals as No. 12 Providence Grove beat No. 21 Princeton in the first round of the 3-A state playoffs. Kevin Bautista-Jimenez had a goal and two assists. Criss Cancino-Lopez scored one goal. Eric Gonzalez had an assist. Aldo Rubion-Cortes made seven saves.    

■ Gio Hernandez and Cristobal Lopez both scored two goals as No. 7 Southwestern Randolph romped to a 7-2 win over No. 10 Eastern Wayne in the second round of the 4-A state playoffs. Griffin Hall, Alejandro Jimenez and John Perez-Dominguez got the other goals. Hall and Jimenez each had two assists. Holt Tyl and Lopez both had one assist. Troy Adkins made five saves and Hayden Morrow stopped one shot.

■ Asheboro, seeded ninth, edged conference rival and No. 8 Northern Guilford 2-1 in the second round of the 6-A state playoffs. The two teams split their regular season series but NG received a first-round bye and the home field for the second round match. The Blue Comets eked out a first-round victory over No. 24 Olympic 1-0 in three overtimes.

■ Providence Grove, the 12th seed, beat No. 5 McMichael 4-2 in a penalty kick shootout after the teams played to a 0-0 draw through two overtimes in the second round of the 3-A state playoffs.

■ Trinity, the No. 8 seed, fell 2-1 to No. 9 West Lincoln in the second of the 3-A state playoffs.

■ Randleman, seeded No. 16, beat No. 17 Morehead 2-0 in the first round of the 4-A state playoffs. The Tigers then fell 7-0 to No. 1 Clinton in the second round.

■ Uwharrie Charter, seeded No. 24, fell 9-0 to No. 9 Graham in the first round of the 4-A state playoffs.

Boys Cross Country

■ Wheatmore’s Ayden Fitzgerald was fourth in the 3-A regional meet and the Warriors finished fourth as a team.

The Warriors’ Daylan Rada was 14th.

■ Fitzgerald finished 11th in the 3-A state meet and Rada was 19th. Jake Hollingsworth was 49th.

Tommy Smithers of Trinity was 60th and Providence Grove’s Keegan Shoptaw was 77th.

■ Randleman’s Jack Gilmartin finished 68th in the 3-A state meet.

Girls Cross Country

■ Randleman’s Laurel Bernhardt was fifth in the 4-A regional meet and the Tigers turned in a fifth-place result as a team.

The Tigers’ Reagan Henley was 20th.

■ Bernhardt finished 15th in the 4-A state meet and Henley was 59th.

Uwharrie Charter’s Gracilyn Elliot was 61st.

■ Wheatmore’s Scarlett Hildreth finished 17th in the 3-A state meet.

Trinity’s Madison Hill was 46th and Kayla Franklin was 55th. Providence Grove’s Bailee Mitchell was 57th.

College Soccer

■ Former Wheatmore star Ellie Garrison scored two goals in Appalachian State’s 3-0 win over Troy to conclude the regular season.

The junior’s two goals gave her an ASU single-season record 12. She also set a new school record with 26 points. Among Garrison’s season highlights was scoring a hat trick (3 goals) in an Oct. 8 televised 4-0 win over Georgia Southern.

Garrison set a North Carolina record with 96 goals in her junior season at Wheatmore in 2024 and finished her prep career with a state-record 230 career goals.