Lambert lost for the first time all season in its second-round series with Mill

Photo by Whitney Reddin

Creek. The No. 1 Longhorns won Game 1 12-0, but lost Game 2 6-5. Lambert is now 29-1. ... In a marquee second-round matchup, No. 3 Parkview swept No. 5 Walton in two competitive games. The Panthers will now face Region 1 champ Coffee in the second round, which has not yet lost in the playoffs. ... Class AAAAA No. 1 Whitewater (25-5) split its series with Hardaway and will play the rubber game tonight. Like Lambert, the Wildcats had no trouble in Game 1 (8-1), but lost Game 2 by a run (7-6). ... Class AAAA No. 1 Marist also will play Game 3 tonight after dropping Game 1 to Alexander. The War Eagles shut out the Cougars 9-0 in Game 2 to stave off elimination. ... Region 8-champion Walnut Grove raised a few eyes around the state by sweeping perennial-power Columbus out of the playoffs. ... Class AAA No. 1 Pike County split with Southeast Bulloch and will need to win tonight to avoid an early exit. The Pirates, which rose to No. 1 for the first time all year in the pre-playoffs rankings, dropped Game 1 7-6 before forcing Game 3 with a convincing 10-4 Game 2 victory. The winner of the series will draw Buford, which was the top-ranked team in Class AAA all year until the pre-playoffs poll. ... In Class AA, GAC rolled on with a sweep of Pepperell. The Spartans are the No. 4 seed out of Region 6, but have not yet lost a game in the state tournament. In fact, all four Region 6 qualifiers are still alive and three of them are through to the quarterfinals. Lovett, the defending state champion, lost Game 2 last night to Calhoun and faces a winner-take-all contest tonight. ... ELCA swept into the Class A-Private semifinals, making it the lone No. 1 to advance. 

What happens when Blessed Trinity and St. Pius X play in the same region? It makes for a brutal draw in the state tournament for at least a few teams. In this case it was bad news for Blessed Trinity (the No. 2 seed behind St. Pius X out of Region 6-AAA) and Buford (the top seed from Region 7), who had to face each other in the second round of the state tournament on Wednesday evening despite being ranked second and third in the entire state, respectively. 

            The Wolves had home-field advantage, but Blessed Trinity got a goal from Angela Bringmann in the third minute of the game and never looked back en route to a 3-1 victory. Although Buford equalized at 1-1 later in the first half when Elexa Bahr found the back of the net, the Titans pulled away with second-half scores by Caroline Cox in the 57th minute and Caroline Crain in the 73rd minute. 
            "We really battled and really fought," Buford head coach Crystal Fowler told the Gainesville Times. "The girls gave everything that they had; everybody on the team across the board...from the girls on the bench to the ones on the field, everyone was just putting their whole heart into it. I'm very proud of them."
            Next up for Blessed Trinity in Saturday's quarterfinals is a visit to Pike County, which edged Islands 3-2. The Titans remain on a collision course for the title match with St. Pius X, which battled past Dawson County 1-0.
            In Class AA, several of Blessed Trinity's former region rivals also took care of business on Wednesday. All four Region 6 squads punched their quarterfinal tickets; Greater Atlanta Christian rolled over Armuchee 10-0, Lovett handled Calhoun 5-1, Westminster blanked Jordan 10-0 and Wesleyan trounced Bremen 8-0.
            Class AAAAAA action saw all three remaining Region 8 teams

Photo by Richard Craine

progress into the quarterfinals. Grayson got the best of Lassiter 4-2, while both Brookwood (over Walton) and Parkview (over Peachtree Ridge) notched 2-1 victories on the road. Second-ranked Grayson, however, had a much tougher test than the final score indicates. In fact, the Rams trailed 2-1 when Lassiter scored with 6:14 remaining in the contest but they forced overtime on a goal by Ella Stevens with 2:50 left. Stevens and Jennifer Westendorf both scored in the second overtime period to finish the comeback win with a flurry.  

Round 1 state lacrosse playoffs began on Tuesday with the Class AAAAAA boys and Class A-AAAAA girls. Each 16-team bracket plays eight first round games and in the boys Class AAAAAA action, all four No. 1 seeds advanced but just two of four No. 2's won their first round matchups. No. 3 Walton

Photo courtesy Roswell HS/Studio 7

topped No. 2 Hillgrove 12-7 and No. 3 Lambert steamrolled No. 2 North Gwinnett 11-3. The Class AAAAAA boys Elite 8 is comprised of Harrison, Lambert, Johns Creek, Milton, Centennial, Roswell, Walton and Peachtree Ridge.

Lambert's 11-3 win over North Gwinnett handed the Bulldogs just their second in-state loss of the season. Senior Sean Carruthers scored two goals and tallied one assist and Longhorn teammate Spencer Wilson added a goal and an assist.

Peachtree Ridge eliminated a red-hot Chattahoochee team last night 13-11. The Cougars had won seven games to close out its regular season including a 12-7 win over Walton and a 13-12 home victory over Peachtree Ridge on a last minute goal. The Lions got revenge on Tuesday and were led by two incredible individual efforts. Steven Lee dished out four assist while netting four goals and Matty Ledon also scored four goals. Peachtree Ridge gets Walton next in the Elite 8, which like Chattahoochee, handed the Lions a one-goal defeat in the regular season (12-11).

The Class A-AAAAA girls first round had the same result as the Class AAAAAA boys. All four No. 1 seeds held court while two of four No. 2 seeds fell to visiting No. 3 seeds. No. 3 Pope fought back from a 7-5 halftime deficit to beat Starr's Mill 12-10 and No. 3 Blessed Trinity cruised past No. 2 Marist 15-6.

Zoe Szczotka led Pope's comeback with four goals and four assists and Sophia Bowers netted a hat-trick. One of the night's top performances from came in top-seeded Kell's 16-11 win over Lovett. Standout Haley Swift led the Longhorns with four goals and six assists. Teammates Leslie Ferguson and Izzy Palermo finished with four goals and three goals, respectively.

Kell, Northview, McIntosh, Blessed Trinity, Cambridge, Westminster, Pope and St. Pius X make up the girls Class A-AAAAA Elite 8.

The Class A-AAAAA boys and the Class AAAAAAA girls open their first rounds tonight.