Area boys hit road in soccer

Green Hope, Chapel Hill and Pittsboro Northwood go on the road tonight for the N.C. High School Athletic Association boys soccer semifinal games.

Green Hope is at Southern Pines Pinecrest for a 4-A game, while Chapel Hill and Northwood will play within a few miles of each other in the 3-A and 2-A semis. Chapel Hill is at undefeated Jacksonville; Northwood is at Swansboro.

Green Hope (18-4-2) and Pinecrest (17-4-1) have survived several one-goal games.

The Falcons beat Durham Riverside 1-0 in the quarterfinals after knocking off previously undefeated and nationally No. 3-ranked Durham Jordan 2-1. They also beat Sanderson 2-1 in overtime and West Johnston 1-0.

Pinecrest went into OT in the quarterfinals before defeating New Hanover 1-0. The Patriots had topped Fayetteville Sanford 2-1, Wilmington Hoggard 2-1 in overtime and Fayetteville Pine Forest 2-0.

Chapel Hill (18-7-1) is making a quick turnaround. The Tigers defeated Cardinal Gibbons 4-3 on Monday night.

Jacksonville (28-0) has been overpowering. It defeated Wilson Hunt 5-0 in the quarterfinals and has outscored its four playoff opponents 18-0.

Northwood (18-2-2) slipped past Durham School of the Arts 2-1 in the quarterfinals, but outscored its other three playoff opponents 14-0. Swansboro (21-6-0) opened the playoffs with a 7-0 win over Greene Central, nipped Clinton 1-0 and Croatan 2-1 before blasting Whiteville 6-0.

The championship games will be held Friday and Saturday at the Wake Med Soccer Park. One game is scheduled for Friday at 7:30 p.m. Games on Saturday are set for 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.

If one of the classification finals has two schools that are not involved in the football playoffs, those teams probably will play Friday night.

GlaxoSmithKline: Rocky Mount has replaced Chapel Hill in the GlaxoSmithKline Holiday Invitational in December at Broughton.

The Gryphons are paired against Raleigh Word of God in the first round. The winner will play Apex or Wilson Greenfield. The bottom half of the bracket has Red Springs Flora McDonald vs. West Charlotte and Forsyth Country Day vs. Charlotte United Faith.

The other eight-team boys bracket has New York Rice vs. Durham Riverside; Enloe vs. Cardinal Gibbons; Marietta (Ga.) Walton vs. Millbrook and Garner vs. Kinston.

The girls first-round games are South Central Pitt vs. Northern Durham and Broughton vs. Apex.

Dupree sets records: Former Garner High swimmer Tucker Dupree recently broke five of his own American Paralympics records in preparation for the Short Course World Championship on Nov. 29 through Dec. 5 in Brazil.

Dupree, who lost most of his vision as a high school student, lowered his records in the 50 freestyle (22.48 seconds), 1,000 free (10:42.51), 200 free (1:52.3), 100 butterfly (58.89), 200 IM (2:06.62).

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