West Forsyth spring sports roundup: Titans’ girls lacrosse team wins Central Piedmont 4-A tournament, named No. 2 seed in the West for this week’s NCHSAA Class 4-A tournament

Published 9:45 pm Monday, April 29, 2024

GIRLS LACROSSE 

The West Forsyth girls lacrosse team has had one of its best seasons in program history, and it continued that last week by winning the Central Piedmont 4-A tournament, defeating Reynolds 14-9 in the championship in Clemmons.

It’s just the second time in school history, according to Coach Dough Brawley, that the West Forsyth girls have won the conference-tournament championship. The last time was 2017.

“It was great. They showed up,” Brawley said. “You know, you worry about after we won the (regular season) conference (two weeks ago) have a little bit of a letdown, and because you’ve already secured the No. 1 seed for our conference going into the state playoffs, you know, you’d already beaten these teams that you’re going to play. So, you’re just hoping they’d stay focused.”

West Forsyth (18-1) had a first-round bye last week in the conference tournament and played Davie County in the semifinals in Clemmons. West Forsyth led 13-3 at halftime.

Gabby Vestal led the Titans with five goals and Tatum Snow finished with four.

In the championship against Reynolds, Vestal finished with four goals and Alivia Gurley and Bailey Fox chipped in with three goals apiece.

(The bye) gave us a huge advantage,” Brawley said. “It allowed, Davie had played the day before (against East Forsyth), we had a day rest, and then we were able to rest on Wednesday. And we actually watched the Reynolds-Reagan game as a team.

“So, it gave us another day to rest and work on some of our loose ends.”

West Forsyth took advantage of it and defeated Reynolds for the third time this season.

“You know the old cliche, it’s hard to beat anybody three times, and it was definitely a concern,” Brawley said. “Reynolds came out strong and pretty much maintained the lead throughout the entire first half. I think we tied it up with about 18 seconds to go in the first half.

“So, going into half, it’s 6-6, but we knew we had not played our best lacrosse. We had not played at the level we were accustomed to playing. And so, there was no need to panic.”

The NCHSAA released the pairings on Monday for the NCHSAA Class 4-A girls lacrosse tournament. West Forsyth is the No. 2 seed in the West and received a first-round bye. It will play in the second round Saturday at home against the winner of Wednesday’s first-round game between No. 18 Greensboro Grimsley at No. 15 Southeast Guilford.

“Hopefully we’ll get to play several games, but we’re going to take them one game at a time,” Brawley said. “I told my girls that I would be proud of them no matter what, as long as we walked off that field, and we had played our best, and the better team won.”

GIRLS SOCCER

Not to be outdone, the West Forsyth girls soccer team kept the momentum going last week, winning three games in successive nights.

West Forsyth (12-2-1 overall, 10-0 Central Piedmont 4-A) defeated Parkland 9-0 last Monday in a conference game, defeated North Davidson 2-0 last Tuesday in a nonconference game last Tuesday, and it defeated Glenn 9-0 last Wednesday in a conference game.

“It was different,” Coach Jeffrey Williams of West Forsyth said. “We added North Davidson the week before. We got the game (two weeks ago). We only played a half on a Monday, a little over a half on Wednesday.

“So, North Davidson is the No. 1-ranked team in RPI in (NCHSAA Class) 3-A, so we wanted to get a competitive game, another competitive game in. And went there, and did well.”

Aislynn Maguire led West Forsyth with four goals against Parkland, and Hannah Hanes and Ashley Johnsen scored two goals apiece. In the North Davidson game, Maguire and Ella Fergus scored the two goals. Maguire also scored three goals in the Glenn game, and Milly Garcia Olmedo and Hanes scored two goals apiece.

As of Monday afternoon, Parkland is 2-14 overall and 0-10 in the conference, and Glenn is 4-10-1 and 2-8. North Davidson is 13-2 overall.

“I told the girls I was going to treat (the North Davidson game) like a playoff game, a first-round playoff game,” Williams said. “And I gave them information that I would give them about another team like I would the first round of the state playoffs. But the other team was well organized, had a few players who were very dangerous.

“It was good for us to go against someone we weren’t familiar with, and also some players were able to come in and kind of give some quality minutes that may not have in other situations.”

With two weeks to go in the regular season, West Forsyth has two games scheduled this week and two games scheduled next week.

West Forsyth played at Reagan on Monday night, and it was scheduled to play host to Davie County on Wednesday night. West Forsyth defeated Reagan 4-2 in the previous meeting, and it defeated Davie County 3-1 in the previous meeting.

As of Monday afternoon, Reagan was 12-2 overall and 8-2 in the Central Piedmont 4-A, and Davie County was 5-6-2 overall and 2-6-2 in the conference.

“I guess we clinch (the conference title) Monday, at least we clinch a share of the conference if we win,” Williams said. “And I think that’s worth noting, but it’s definitely not a, the priority level is way down the list as far as what that is – what it is and how we prepare for the game.”

BASEBALL

The baseball team at West Forsyth had two wins and one loss last week, which was the final week of the regular season.

Last Monday, West Forsyth defeated North Surry 4-3 in a nonconference game in Toast. The following night, West Forsyth lost 1-0 against East Forsyth in a Central Piedmont 4-A game in Clemmons, and on Thursday night, West Forsyth bounced back and defeated East Forsyth 4-1 in Kernersville.

“Overall, it was good,” Coach Kevin McIntosh of West Forsyth said. “We started out on Monday; we picked up a 4-3 win up at North Surry (13-8) against a good nonconference game. And did some good things in that game as far as pitching-wise. Actually, we pitched it well all week long.

“Tuesday was one of the weirdest games I’ve been a part of. We left 14 guys on base, 14 of 15 guys on base. They walked us 12 times and we just couldn’t execute to score a run for us.”

Despite that, West Forsyth did win the second game against East Forsyth.

“We turned around, I think we had nine hits on them Thursday night and was able to get the big hit out of Jack Vest and Will Holder in the fifth inning to give us a lead,” McIntosh said. “Then we got six strong innings out of (pitcher) Greyson (Jones) and then Logan Rodriguez came in and closed it out and picked up the save throwing the seventh inning for us.”

The conference tournament started Monday night at the sites of the higher seeds, the semifinals and championship will be at East Forsyth.

West Forsyth (17-6, 11-3) finished as the No. 2 seed and played No. 7 Reynolds (3-14, 2-12) on Monday night in Clemmons. The winner of that game was scheduled to play the winner of Monday’s game No. 6 Mount Tabor (4-12, 4-10) at No. 3 East Forsyth (14-8, 9-5) at 7:30 in Tuesday’s semifinals.

In other first-round games, No. 8 Parkland (2-17, 0-14) played at No. 1 Reagan (19-3, 13-1), and No. 5 Davie County (12-9, 8-6) played at No. 4 Glenn (15-8, 9-5). Those two winners were scheduled to face each other at 5 p.m. in Tuesday’s first semifinal.

The championship is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Thursday.

“I think if you can throw the baseball and you can play defense then you’ve got a shot, especially in a one-game, when it’s not a series-type situation,” McIntosh said.

SOFTBALL

The West Forsyth softball team won its four games last week and finished the regular season in a first-place tie with Reagan in the Central Piedmont 4-A.

West Forsyth finished 20-3 overall and 12-2 in the conference. Reagan finished 18-3 overall and 12-2 in the conference. Reagan defeated West Forsyth in both meetings this season, so Reagan will be the No. 1 seed in this week’s conference tournament.

“You’re always satisfied having a conference championship,” Coach Kevin Baity of the Titans said. “You feel like it’s one of those deals that you come in the backdoor when Reagan swept us twice. That’s kind of bittersweet because that part of it should never happen, especially Davie and East both beat (Reagan) one game.

“You know, we should, I just feel like we didn’t play our best either game against them, defensively, especially.”

Last Monday, West Forsyth defeated East Wilkes 9-8 in eight innings in a nonconference game, and last Tuesday, West Forsyth defeated Reynolds 15-0 and 16-0 in a conference doubleheader, and last Thursday, West Forsyth upended East Forsyth 12-1 in conference game.

The conference tournament started Monday at the sites of the higher seeds and the semifinals and championship will be at Glenn. In Monday’s quarterfinal, No. 2 West Forsyth played host to No. 7 Reynolds (4-13, 2-12). The winner of that game will play the winner of Monday’s game between No. 6 Mount Tabor (4-12, 4-10) at No. 3 Davie County (16-7, 11-3), were scheduled to play at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in the semifinals.

In other quarterfinals games on Monday, No. 5 Glenn (8-13, 6-8) played No. 4 East Forsyth (12-11, 9-5), and No. 8 Parkland (1-14, 0-14) played at No. 1 Reagan. Those winners were scheduled to play at 5 p.m. on Tuesday in the other semifinal.

The championship is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Thursday. Whichever team fares better in the conference tournament between Reagan and West Forsyth will receive the No. 1 seed for next week’s NCHSAA Class 4-A state tournament.

“We’ve got ourselves in the position now that we still have a chance to go in first in the state tournament by beating Davie and the winner of East and Reagan,” Baity said. “And I feel like it’s very doable.”

BOYS LACROSSE

The West Forsyth boys lacrosse team finished its season last Monday after losing 18-1 to second-seeded Reagan in the first round of the Central Piedmont 4-A tournament in Pfafftown.

The Titans, who were outscored 233-71 this season, finished 0-16 overall and 0-12 in the conference.

Reagan defeated fourth-seeded Davie County 14-9 in the championship.