Union Pines and Gray's Creek battled evenly between the 20s for most of Thursday night's game, but the Bears broke three long runs for a 20-7 win in Cameron.
Calvin Boyd had rushing touchdowns of 80, 68 and 29 yards as Gray's Creek (5-1; 1-0) won the rainy Cape Fear Valley 3A opener for both schools.
Union Pines quarterback Ben Bowbliss cut the Bears' lead to 14-7 late in the third quarter on a 13-yard scoring pass to Brayden Gisler. Bowbliss completed 10 of 22 passes for 83 yards with 1 interception and he carried the ball 14 times for 37 yards in the game.
Taijh Alston led the Viking defense with 9 tackles. Other than Boyd's three big runs, Union Pines held the Bears to 115 yards of total offense and recovered 2 fumbles.
Union Pines is 4-2; 0-1 and visits league leader Terry Sanford next week. ‪