CARY — The Carolina Railhawks found their legs and exploded for three goals, defeating the Wilmington Hammerheads, 3-0, in a scrimmage Friday night at WakeMed Soccer Park.

The evening was pegged as Military Appreciation Night and crowds came out in full force to watch the game, halftime festivities and the fireworks that followed.

The Hammerheads met the Railhawks just two weeks ago, when Wilmington ousted Carolina from the U.S. Open Cup at home. The Hammerheads made it through the next round of the tournament, defeating the Chicago Fire 1-0, and will face the Rochester Rhinos Tuesday in the fourth round of cup play.

“We had a little bit of a chip on our shoulders after the last game, so we definitely had a little more motivation and I think it showed,” midfielder Brian Plotkin said.

Wilmington rested many of its key players and Mark Rennie did the same for his Railhawks, sitting regulars Mark Schulte and Matt Watson, among others. However, those who played for a rocking crowd the night before the July 4th holiday extracted revenge on their in-state rivals.

Kupono Low struck first, scoring his first goal in over a year. In the 35th minute of play, try-out Gregory Richardson found Low snooping in front of the net. Low roofed it to make the score 1-0.

Rennie shifted his entire offensive core around before the start of the second half and was rewarded with two goals.

“In the second half we started to pose a lot of different problems because our movement was really good and we came inside and opened the areas out wide,” Rennie said.

Midfielder Daniel Paladini’s new cleats – purchased this morning – were bothering him, so he sent for his broken-in bright orange ones. Two minutes after the change, he scored the second goal of the game. John Cunliffe sprung Sallieu Bundu, who came up the side alone and dangled the ball for a second instead of taking a shot. He shuffled it to Paladini.

“I saw some space around Bundu and he gave me a perfect ball,” Paladini said. “I slid it to the left side post.”

Plotkin scored in the 86th minute after a nifty setup from Paladini. Paladini twirled around, keeping the ball close by and found Plotkin standing alone. Plotkin picked his shot and ripped a ball into the corner to make the score 3-0.

“I saw Caleb. I saw the space and I ran into it,” Paladini said. “It was a little underweighted, but I managed to pull it off. If I hadn’t, it’s the kind of play that would have looked stupid.”