Lakeside goalie Susjed Garcia dove to his left and got just a piece of Delvin Bickham’s penalty kick shot to push it wide of the goal and clinch the Vikings’ 2-1 victory (4-2 in penalty kicks) over Heritage-Conyers on Tuesday at Hallford Stadium.
The win propelled the Vikings (14-4-2) into the Class AAAAA state playoffs’ quarterfinals against today’s (Wednesday) winner of No. 1 ranked McIntosh (19-0-0) and Evans (12-5-0) which is tentatively set for Saturday.
The two teams had played to a 1-1 after overtime to force the game into the penalty kick session.
Lakeside’s George Gavrielides and Andy Person hit the first two attempts for the Vikings against Heritage goalie Connor Domaleski while Harrison and Austin Kulp knocked in the first two against Garcia as the session went to 2-2.
Dawit Alemu put his shot into the net past Domaleski to give Lakeside a 3-2 lead bringing Grant Crain up for the Patriots. Crain lofted a shot high and off the cross bar of the goal to keep the Vikings in the lead.
Sebastian Arroqui followed with a score putting Lakeside up 4-2 in the penalty kicks with a miss by Heritage needed to seal the win.
This brought Bickham up for Heritage and his attempt to hit the right corner of the net was pushed wide by Garcia sending the Vikings into a celebration in front of the goal.
The game was knotted 0-0 at the half before Heritage took a 1-0 lead on Austin Kulp’s goal with 27 minutes left to play in the game.
Twelve minutes tick off the clock before Lakeside finally answered off the foot of Cheikh Faye from the right side to knot the game at 1-1. Heritage missed an opportunity with a header just over the goal with 11:46 to play.
The Vikings had three good shots at ending the game in the final 3:49 of regulation, but Domaleski made saves on all three shots to send the game into overtime.
Both teams had opportunities in the first five minute overtime period, but failed to score and the second five minute overtime period went quietly to set up the penalty kicks.
The Lady Vikings did not fare so well in their second round game as Allatoona pinned the first loss of the season on Lakeside with a 4-3 victory in the opener at Hallford on Tuesday.
Suzanne Arafa sent a shot low into the right corner on a penalty kick with 22:08 to play to give Allatoona the 4-3 win.
Lakeside had fallen behind 1-0 on a Willough Davis goal with 17:26 left in the first half, but rallied to take a brief 2-1 on goals from Kendall McRae and Elizabeth Bazemore.
Davis sent the game to the half tied at 2-2 as she converted a penalty kick on a penalty call against the Lady Vikings near the goal with 4:35 to play in the half.
Astah Das put Allatoona up 3-2 early in the second half only to see Lakeside rally again as Lilly Stamps put a free kick into the right corner of the goal just two minutes later to knot the game at 3-3. Six minutes later Arafa hit the winning goal.
Allatoona’s goalie made a pair of diving stops in the final 15 minutes to stifle another Lakeside comeback attempt. Lakeside finished 18-1-1 on the season.
Class AAAAAA
Tift County rallied in the final minute of regulation to upend the Druid Hills Lady Red Devils 2-1 in overtime to win a second round Class AAAAAA playoff game at Adams Stadium on Tuesday.
Druid Hills was up 1-0 with just over a minute to play when Tift County (17-2-0) tied the game to force the overtime. Tift would go on to score the winning goal to knock Druid Hills (11-6-1) out of the playoffs.
DeKalb boys’ state soccer playoff action tonight has Druid Hills (9-9-0) entertaining North Cobb (10-6-0) in a 7 p.m. game at Hallford Stadium while Tucker (12-5-1) travels to Allatoona (17-1-0) for an 8 p.m. game.
Soccer State Playoffs Results
Tuesday, May 7
Girls
Class AAAAAA
Tift County (17-2-0) 2, Druid Hills (11-6-1) 1, OT, season ends
Class AAAAA
Allatoona (13-5-1) 4, Lakeside (18-1-1) 1, season ends
Boys
Class AAAAA
Lakeside (14-4-2) 2, Heritage-Conyers (14-4-2) 1, 4-2 on penalty kicks
Soccer State Playoffs Schedule
Wednesday, May 8
Boys
Class AAAAAA
North Cobb (10-6-0) vs. Druid Hills (9-9-0), Hallford, 7 p.m.
Class AAAAA
Tucker (12-5-1) at Allatoona (17-1-0), 8 p.m.