North Carolina prep roundup

After some early-season struggles, the Reidsville Lady Rams find themselves back in the North State 2-A Conference playoff picture following Wednesday night’s 1-0 victory over second-place West Stokes.
Reidsville, now 4-2 in the North State and 4-8 overall, has won four of its last five games – dating back to April 7.
“We played well against them Friday at their place, but tonight we really played well,” said RHS coach Jarod Williams. “We were much faster than them in the middle of the field.”
The game’s lone goal, scored with three minutes left in the game, came from Beth Neal – with an assist going to Jennifer Brown.
“Beth had four really good opportunities and she finally found the back of the net on the fourth one,” said Williams.
He also praised the play of Brown as well as Carroll Davis in the middle and Hannah Eure on defense.
Kinsey Kropa recorded her second shutout of the season and made eight saves.
With the loss, West Stokes fell to 3-1-1 in conference.
Eastern Guilford, which hosts Reidsville on Monday, sits atop the North State 2-A Conference.
Reidsville won despite being out shot, 8-7. The Lady Rams held a 2-0 edge in corner kicks.
In the loss, Stepanie Davis recorded six saves for West Stokes.
Before Eastern, Reidsville battles Northern Guilford tonight.
Tonight’s game is scheduled for 6 p.m. in Greensboro.

Lady Cougars shut out Dudley
GREENSBORO — Rockingham County did all of its scoring in the first half and needed nothing more as the Lady Cougars blanked host Greensboro Dudley, 4-0 Wednesday night in Triad 3-A Conference soccer action.
The Lady Cougars, now 8-4-1 overall on the season, scored their first two goals in the first five minutes of the contest. RCHS improved to 3-4-1 in conference games.
Adrianne Zeller (4:00) and Casey Kenealy (5:00) gave RCHS a quick 2-0 advantage.
“We used tonight to get players in there that don’t normally play and we even brought up some jayvee players to play,” said RCHS coach Reg Gentle.
Ten minutes into the game, Taylor Andrews’ goal extended the Lady Cougars lead to 3-0.
RCHS out shot Dudley, 13-1.
In the loss, Dudley’s Paige Shephard recorded five saves in goal.
With 16 minutes left in the first half, Areeg Rehman assisted on a Samantha Dunnington goal to close out the scoring at 4-0 RCHS.
Despite the loss, Dudley held a 5-4 edge in corner kicks.
RCHS returns to action tonight at Bartlett Yancey (6 p.m.).

Lady Panthers blanked by W. Alamance
When a team is missing four players and has to ask two softball players to play for one game, that’s a strong sign that it might be a long night. That is what Morehead was faced with Wednesday night against visiting Western Alamance. Minus four players including all-around player Danielle Minichello, the Lady Panthers were outnumbered and eventually got worn down as they fell 6-0 to Western.
Down only 2-0 at halftime, the lack of depth proved to be too much as Western scored three goals in a nine-minute span to break the game open. With the loss, MHS dropped to 10-6 overall and 3-6 in Triad 3-A Conference action.
“I’m satisfied on how we played considering we had no subs and had a lot of girls playing in different spot,” MHS coach Ken Price said. “The girls hustled and played to the very end. I just think we got tired.”
Kelsey Zalimeni led the way for Western with a hat trick as she scored goals at the 39:00, 49:00 and 58:00 marks.
Nicole Cates got the Lady Warriors on the board with a goal two minutes into the game. Other scoring came from Ashlea Austin (54-minute mark) and Melony Alvis (70-minute mark).
MHS, which had the softball duo of Mandi and Missy McCullough playing, was held to just five shots on goal and one corner kick. Western finished with 34 shots and five corner kicks.
Mandi McCullough had 18 saves in goal for the home team, while Kori Briscoe tallied two for the visitors.
Morehead will return to action Monday night at Western Guilford (6 p.m.).