The No. 2 ranked Druid Hills Red Devils’ 5-0 Class 4A state playoff opening win over the Spalding Jaguars at Adams Stadium can be described as relentless.

Druid Hills continually pressured on offense and ran down Spalding offensive attacks to allow just three shots on goal in the game.

The first score came as Jeremy Lloyd lofted a pass over the defense for Luke Narker who got his foot on the ball just before the goalie could make a sliding stop to push it past him. Narker chased the ball a couple of yards and put it into the net for 1-0 Druid Hills’ lead with just 4:49 gone in the game.

Narker and the Red Devils’ offense kept up the pressure with several scoring chances getting thwarted by the middle of the Spalding defense over the next 12 minutes of the game.

Spalding took advantage of the Druid Hills’ aggressiveness for a breakaway with 19:52 left in the first half, but a hustling Druid Hills’ defense got back to force a high shot off the cross bar to keep the score at 1-0.

The score went to 2-0 as Narker passed to Hasib Fudacel as the clocked ticked under 15:00 to play in the first half. Fudacel dribbled toward the goalie and tapped a shot to the goal where another defender could not control the ball as it rolled into the net.

Connor Logue extended the lead to 3-0 with 7:25 to play in the half as he got the deflection of his first shot and powered the ball past the goalie into the right corner for the score.

Druid Hills let Spalding know the pressure would continue after halftime as they got a shot that went just wide left just one minute into the second half.

Spalding would get its second shot on goal about four minutes later, but Druid Hills’ goalie Josh Lloyd handled it easily.

The Red Devils would get three good shots at goal in the next seven minutes of play only to have them go wide or have a Spalding defender to make a play to keep the score at 3-0.

Narker connected with Fudacel again with 27:34 to play to make it a 4-0 game.

The final score came with 15:52 to play as Menkaseh Tokpa put a penalty kick into the net for the final of 5-0.

Druid Hills (13-6-0) advances to the Sweet 16 to host No. 9 ranked Northwest Whitfield (13-5-1) who beat North Oconee 4-0 on Wednesday to advance. The site and game time will be announced at a later time.

Class 3A Boys
The Stone Mountain Pirates had their season come to an end in the first round of the Class 3A state playoffs with a 5-1 defeat at the hands of East Hall.

Stone Mountain finishes 9-5-1 on the season as the No. 3 seed from Region 5-3A.

Six more DeKalb teams open playoff action tonight (Thursday) with four playing home games. The Tucker Lady Tigers and Tigers host Brunswick in a doubleheader at Hallford beginning with the girls at 5:30 pm and the boys at 7:30 pm.

The Chamblee Lady Bulldogs (11-3-2) open the Class 5A state playoffs hosting Kell at Adams with a 5:30 pm start.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Lady Lions (14-3-1) host Effingham County in Class 6A girls’ play featuring Jasmine Mathis who has set the new DeKalb County scoring record with 66 goals this season giving her 114 goals (48 in 2016) over the past two seasons. She broke the record of 55 held by Kristin Peagler of Southwest DeKalb set in 2013.

In Class 5A girls’ state tournament play, Arabia Mountain (12-3-0) travels to Rome for a 6:00 pm game and Southwest DeKalb (7-6-0) travels to Paulding County (14-3-0).

Stephenson (9-8-0) travels to Glynn Academy (12-3-1) for a 6:00 pm start in Class 6A girls’ action. Lakeside (9-6-2) travels to South Forsyth (15-3-0) for a 6:00 pm match in Class 7A girls’ play.

DCSD SOCCER STATE PLAYOFFS RESULTS
Wednesday, April 26
BOYS
CLASS 4A
Druid Hills (13-6-0) 5, Spalding (7-8-4) 0

CLASS 3A
East Hall (15-4-0) 5, Stone Mountain (9-5-1) 1

DCSD SOCCER STATE PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE
Thursday, April 27
GIRLS
CLASS 7A
Lakeside (9-6-2) at South Forsyth (15-3-0), 6:00 pm

CLASS 6A
GIRLS
Brunswick (3-12-0) vs. Tucker (11-6-0), Hallford, 5:30 pm
Effingham Co. (14-3-0) vs. M.L. King (14-3-1), Godfrey, 6:00 pm
Stephenson (9-8-0) vs. Glynn Academy (12-3-1), 6:00 pm

CLASS 5A
Kell (7-8-0) vs. Chamblee (11-3-2), Adams, 5:30 pm
Arabia Mountain (12-3-0) at Rome (9-9-0), 6:00 pm
SW DeKalb (7-6-0) at Paulding Co. (14-3-0), 6:00 pm

BOYS
CLASS 6A
Brunswick (3-14-0) vs. Tucker (11-7-0), Hallford, 7:30 pm

Friday, April 28
CLASS 5A BOYS
Cass (5-10-0) vs. Clarkston (15-1-1), Hallford, 6:00 pm
Villa Rica (10-4-2) vs. Cross Keys (11-4-1), Adams, 7:30 pm
Chamblee (6-8-2) at Rome (10-4-1), 7:30 pm
Arabia Mountain (7-7-0) at Carrollton (13-2-0), 6:00 pm

CLASS 5A GIRLS
Carrollton (6-12-0) vs. Cross Keys (7-5-0), Adams, 5:30 pm

Admission Cost:
Doubleheader: Adults/Students $10.00        
Single Game: Adults/Students $7.00