Volleyball suffered its first loss of the season last week, but managed a win as well—something that eluded Bucks soccer and football. Here’s a look at how the Hoke County sports teams did.
Football
Hoke County suffered back-to-back setbacks this week. First, the weather got the upper hand over the Bucks, with rain forcing Friday’s game to be postponed. When Hoke finally took the field on Saturday, the Bucks fell at South View by a 25-21 score.
Brandon Saunders threw touchdown passes to Wayne Claiborne and Tycen Vick, and Favor Anab ran for a score, but it wasn’t enough to produce the first win of the year for Hoke. Xavier Pena had 128 kick return yards, and Chris McKoy added a pair of tackles for loss. Hoke fell to 0-2 on the year.
Next for the Bucks is a road trip to Douglas Byrd, Friday at 7:30. The Eagles are 1-1, blowing out Red Springs, 40-14 in the opener, then getting shut out by E.E. Smith, 20-0, at home last week.
Boys’ soccer
After a 4-1 start to the year, Hoke County soccer had a rough week, going 0-1-1 without scoring a goal. The Bucks played Lumberton to a scoreless tie, then traveled to Cape Fear the following day and fell, 3-0. Sophomore Brentley Blumer had eight saves to preserve the tie with a shutout against Lumberton.
The Bucks are 4-2-1 on the year and hosted Red Springs on Tuesday. Hoke then opens conference play the following Monday with a trip to Scotland.
Volleyball
After a 5-0 start to the season, Hoke County’s volleyball team dropped their first contest of the year. The Bucks fell to Scotland on the road by a 3-1 margin. Two of the games had a razor-thin margin, with the Scots winning 25-22 in the first game and 25-23 in the fourth.
The Bucks bounced back, sweeping Lee County, 3-0, later in the week. They stand at 6-1, 1-1 in the Sandhills.
With three matches this week, Hoke has a chance to match or exceed its win total for all of last season. The Bucks have posted eight wins each of the last two years. They traveled to Richmond on Tuesday, then went to Douglas Byrd the following day and host Southern Lee on Thursday.
