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By Jay Spivey

For the Clemmons Courier

The No. 5-seeded West Forsyth girls lacrosse team continued its winning ways this past Friday night.

After having a first-round bye, Gabby Vestal scored five goals to defeat No. 12 Greensboro Grimsley 20-8 in the second round of the NCHSAA Class 4-A girls lacrosse playoffs in Clemmons.

“It went really well,” West Forsyth Coach Doug Brawley said. “Grimsley, they wouldn’t go away. Tough bunch of girls. They wouldn’t quit. We jumped up on them 9-1 and they came back by halftime and took it to 9-4.”

The Titans (21-5) took control in the second half.

“We had some adjustments in the draw circle,” Brawley said. “Sara Gurley entered the circle and she kind of took over in regards to the faceoff portion of the game and altered the momentum for sure.”

In addition to Vestal’s five goals, Brigdhe Mullen and Tatum Snow scored four goals apiece, and Gurley and Kayleigh Mutkus added three each.

“We had a variety of people step up,” Brawley said. “That’s the perfect game as far as I’m concerned – five, six people putting in four or five goals – that would be great because it’s going to be a lot harder to stop.”

The Whirlies finished 11-7.

West Forsyth advanced to travel to No. 4 Lake Norman (13-6) on Monday night in the third round. Lake Norman defeated No. 13 Reagan 15-5 this past Friday.

It is the second meeting this season between West Forsyth and Lake Norman. Lake Norman won the first meeting 18-4 on March 21 in Clemmons.

“We were missing three of our starters when we played Lake Norman last time,” Brawley said. “It was early in the season. Our starting midfielder, our starting attack and a starting defenseman were all absent during that game. I definitely feel like we’re a different team now.”

Softball

The No. 3-seeded West Forsyth softball team won its third-round game last Tuesday against No. 6 Northern Guilford in Clemmons, but this past Friday night again at home, West Forsyth’s season ended after it lost to No. 10 South Caldwell in the quarterfinals of the state playoffs.

Last Tuesday in Clemmons, West Forsyth (26-3)  defeated Northern Guilford 8-0 in the third round.

West Forsyth scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning, three in the third inning and tacked on another run in the fifth to take a 6-0 lead. It added two more runs in the sixth inning.

Northern Guilford finished 23-5.

This past Friday in Clemmons, South Caldwell scored four runs in the top of the sixth to help it defeat West Forsyth 5-2, ending West Forsyth’s season.

“I saw South Caldwell play four times and I knew, top to bottom, they hit as well as anybody in the state,” Baity said. “But they also don’t see the pitching that we have.”

West Forsyth scored two runs in the fourth inning to take a 2-0 lead.

“We had them 2-0 in the sixth inning and we had two outs and we’re going to have the bottom of (South Caldwell’s lineup) up in the seventh inning, and made a couple mistakes,” Baity said. “And that’s all it takes against a good team.”

South Caldwell (28-2) scored an insurance run in the top of the seventh.

“It just makes you appreciate that you had the opportunity,” Baity said. “You just appreciate the time you had with those kids, especially those seniors that seemed like yesterday that they were getting started.

“And I told them at the beginning of this year, when we started in August, I said, ‘Girls, I’m telling you, just enjoy every day. Cherish every day, because before you know it it’s going to be ending.’”

Baseball

The fifth-seeded West Forsyth’s baseball season also ended this past Friday after losing 7-6 at top-seeded Waxhaw’s Cuthbertson in the quarterfinals of the state playoffs.

Cuthbertson improved to 25-4.

“Going into it we knew they were the one seed. We knew they were good, but we also knew that they were beatable,” West Forsyth Coach Kevin McIntosh said. “They had been beaten four or five times this year. Again, knowing their program and knowing what they’ve got on the field with Division I arms, we knew it was a tall task, but we also knew this team had been battle tested in the playoffs this year.”

Despite the Titans (23-5) losing and ending their season, there were still plenty of positives.

“Our kids played with confidence all night long, and unfortunately, we just came up on the short end of the stick,” McIntosh said. “And unless you’re a state champion that’s going to happen to everybody in the state of North Carolina.”

Against No. 20 South Iredell in the third round of the playoffs in Clemmons last Tuesday, West Forsyth scored a run in the bottom of the fifth to win 2-1.

West Forsyth took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but South Iredell (20-9) tied it with a run in the top of the fifth after Landon Church drew a bases-loaded walk.

“Tuesday against South Iredell it was another 2-1, one-run exciting ballgame from the Titans,” McIntosh said. “We took the lead in the bottom of the fifth, 2-1, and it was actually another walked-in run.”

Greyson Jones started for West Forsyth and gave up one unearned run on three hits with eight strikeouts and no walks.

Girls soccer

After defeating No. 28 Southwest Guilford last Monday in the first round of the state playoffs, No. 5 West Forsyth lost against No. 12 Charlotte Ardrey Kell 2-1 this past Thursday in the second round of the playoffs.

In the first round against Southwest Guilford (14-10-1), Reese Williams and Ashley Johnson scored goals to help West Forsyth win 2-0.

“We played solid,” Titans Coach Jeffrey Williams said. “The other team played a little different style than what we’re used to. We had to get used to that a little bit. But we also had to battle the rain and field conditions.”

Last Thursday, West Forsyth faced No. 12 Ardrey Kell in Clemmons, and Ardrey Kell won 2-1, ending West Forsyth’s season.

The Titans finished 16-5-1.

Williams said that Ardrey Kell scored in the first two minutes of the first half to take a 1-0 lead.

“I try to preach just consistency and not getting too high on the highs or too low on the lows,” Williams said. “Doing the right thing and constantly trying to do it.”

Williams said that the Knights tacked on another goal midway through the first half to push the lead to 2-0.

“We go into halftime and we’re down 0-2, and we tried to say, like ‘You’ve got to bring a level of intensity that’s different,’” Williams said. “And we were on them the second half. They could not possess like they should. We were making some pretty high-level passes and some runs. And we were winning more balls, the 50-50s.

“I told some of them I thought after the game that we played like warriors in the second half.”

Ella Fergus of the Titans scored the lone goal to make it 2-1 in the second half.

“We had several opportunities and some chances,” Williams said. “And we just weren’t able to capitalize and get that second goal.”

Boys lacrosse

After having a bounce back season this year, the 14th-seeded West Forsyth’s boys lacrosse team’s season came to an end last Monday after losing 11-8 in Clemmons against No. 19 Charlotte Providence in the first round of the state playoffs.

“I thought we played pretty well,” West Forsyth Coach Jacob Able said. “Too many turnovers. They really had one guy (freshman Tyler Ball), who scored almost every time he touched the ball. So, we tried to lock him, but he’s pretty good, quick. It didn’t quite work out the way we wanted.”

Even though West Forsyth (12-10) lost in the first round of the playoffs, it still showed growth from the prior year. West Forsyth went winless last season.

“Just going from 0-16 to having the best record in program history and hosting the first-ever home playoff in program history,” Able said. “That right there speaks a lot to how much work that the guys put in over the offseason and how bad they wanted it. I think this more than anything is just a testament to them and their hard work”

Track and field

Freshman Laila Jones of West Forsyth finished runner-up in the girls discus and fourth in the girls shot put this past Saturday at the state track-and-field championship at N.C. A&T in Greensboro.

Jones threw the discus at 148-feet, 1 inch, just behind Rocky River’s Alexandria Jefferson, who threw 149-7.

In the shot put, Jones threw it 40.25 feet. Natalie Brown of Weddington won at 47-3.75.

Senior Noelle Childs of West Forsyth finished fourth in the girls pole vault at 10-6. Isabella Leonard of Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons won at 12-9.

Boys golf

Sophomore Kevin Zhang of West Forsyth finished 23rd this past week in the state boys golf championship at Pinehurst No. 8

The championship was shortened to 27 holes because of rain last Monday.

Zhang shot 27 on Day 1 and 73 on Day 2.

Senior Will Hartman of Charlotte Catholic won after shooting 35 in nine holes on Monday and 65 in 18 holes on Tuesday.

The West Forsyth boys finished 12th at 308. Southern Pines’s Pinecrest won at 272, which defeated Raleigh’s Broughton by five strokes