The Carolina RailHawks (13-5-6) have now played to a tie in each of their last three games, and are unbeaten in a club-record seven straight matches after a 0-0 stalemate at Rochester on Saturday.

“It was an even game,” said Carolina coach Martin Rennie. “Rochester pressed pretty well, closed down spaces well and it took us a while to get used to that. As the game went on, we played well and created some chances.

“That's our 15th clean sheet and we're unbeaten for a while in the league. It's a good measure of how far we've come. When you think about it, we're rebuilding and we're up there in second place. … Overall, we should be feeling good.”

The point brings Carolina to a tie with arch-rival Charleston at 45 points apiece. Both teams are considerably behind USL-1 leader Portland, which has 51 points.

The RailHawks and Charleston each have five games remaining to earn a playoff seeding.

Carolina will play host to Miami FC today at 7 p.m. at WakeMed Soccer Park.

Miami is one of the worst road teams in the league, having been outscored 20-8 when playing away from home.

After tonight's game, the RailHawks will have five games remaining against just two opponents. Three of them will come against Montreal (6th, 24 points) and two more versus Puerto Rico (4th, 41 points).

Charleston, in the meantime, will play their remaining games against Portland, Miami, Rochester and twice against Minnesota.

Jhabvala wins 3K

Apex cross country runner Kersie Jhabvala won the girls' competition at Kickoff Classic held at Cary's WakeMed course on Saturday with a time of 11:02.

Jhabvala won by 10 seconds over Lauren Strapp of Leesville Road. Jhabvala finished 35th in last year's 4-A state meet.

In the team scores, however, Green Hope took top honors. The Falcons placed four runners (Jessica Rossabi, Olivia Enright, Maura McDonnell and Sarah Alexaner) in the top nine and six in the top 14.

Finishing second behind Green Hope's 42 points was Cary. The Imps totaled 59 points thanks to strong performances from Deanna Foshee (11:15.53, 3rd) and Jenna Christensen (11:15.96, 4th).

In the boys competition, Green Hope's Bryan Spreitzer finished second with a 9:09, trailing only Broughton's Reidy Jones. Spreitzer missed the majority of last year with injury.

Cary High's Mohamed Abushouk took third with a time of 9:16 and Trey Geiger of Middle Creek came in fifth with 9:29.

Other runners placing in the top-10 were Green Hope's Ryan Walling (9:35, 7th) and Apex's Bryan Noreen (9:37, 10th).

Although Sanderson won the boys competition with 59 points, Green Hope tied with Broughton for second with 73 points.

Thirteen Wake County boys cross country teams and 12 girls teams competed in the event.

Local boys soccer teams ranked

After the first week of competition, three area soccer teams are ranked in the top-15 in the state by eurosportsscoreboard.com and another is receving votes.

Opening 2-0 wins over Leesville Road and East Chapel Hill have Green Hope ranked the highest amongst Tri-Nine Conference teams at No. 3.

Apex has one win to its credit, a 1-0 win at Chapel Hill, and is ranked 9th. Panther Creek is ranked as the No. 11 team despite its lone score being a 2-2 tie with Wilson Hunt.

Fuquay-Varina, which has two wins including a 5-0 blasting of Clayton, received votes, but not a ranking. All rankings and records are as of Monday Aug. 24.