The 6th annual Greenville Jamboree was played this past weekend with three teams from North Carolina and two from South Carolina.

The Southern Pines Gators finished 2-0, as did the Union County Lions.

“It was good to get our first two matches under our belt, and to come away with wins is a bonus, but right now we are focused on identifying our strengths and seeing what the new players are absorbing from the first month of practice,” said Southern Pines Coach Gus Remington.

Union County and South Greenville started the round robin and Union County easily won 31-7.

Southern Pines day started with a match against Myers Park High School, out of Charlotte. The first half was very sloppy, with many mistakes characteristic of the first match of the year. The Gators dropped a couple of scoring opportunities in the first half, but settled down after the half.  Travis Gillespie (Sr. Pinecrest) started the scoring with a strong tackle breaking run, converted by Gus Williams (Jr. Pinecrest).  Joshua Hager (Sr. O’Neal School) was the most improved returning forward and made a number of good defensive plays.  Gus Williams added his own try and converted to give the Gators the 14-10 victory.

Union County then took on the hosts and took care of business 39 to 10.

Southern Pines took on host Greenville high school after the lunch break and a match between South Greenville and Myers Park.  Greenville exploited a defensive breakdown to take a 5-0 lead.  Izaya Graham (So. Pinecrest) playing in his first two rugby matches played very well, making a number of strong tackles.  The Gators answered Greenville’s score after a long run by Michael Mclaughlin (Jr. Union Pines) and a pick and go by Blake Lawrence (Sr. Union Pines) who took it in for a try, converted, to tie it up 7-5. Justin Casillas (So. Pinecrest) made two try-saving tackles, to keep Greenville from taking the lead back.  Blake Lawrence added another try, converted by Gus for the 14-5 lead.  Greenville answered to cut the score to 14-12.  Gus Williams scored to secure the victors, and Southern Pines nipped Greenville 19-12.

Union County will travel to Southern Pines on February 21st, and it is sure to be a barnburner.  Southern Pines opens the regular season at Triad and Union County plays 1st year team Clayton on February 14th.