Knights Speed Too Much For Decatur As Pace Academy Defeats Decatur 16-2 To Advance To Quarterfinals

On Monday, the Pace Academy Knights boys lacrosse team hosted the Decatur Bulldogs in the second round of the Georgia High School Association 1A-5A state playoffs. The Knights would open up the gane scoring quickly in the first quarter with Niko Karetsos scoring two of his four goals in the opening period as the Knights led 4-0 by the end of the first quarter. The Knights add another five goals in the second quarter and would lead 9-0 by halftime.

In the third period of action, the Bulldogs would finally get on the board and trail 9-1, but the fast pace of the Knights on defense and offense would see Decatur not scoring again until late in the fourth period of play, however, Pace Academy would already have 16 goals, which would be too much of a hole for the Bulldogs to climb out of as they would fall 16-2.

Following the match up, Pace Academy head coach, Grady Stevens, credited the fast pace of his team’s play for the win. “We’re just trying to play as fast as we can, for as long as we can,” Stevens stated. He went on to say, “We don’t run that many guys, we have a shallow bench, so a lot of our games and practices are about just getting our guys in as good as shape as they can.” Stevens added that, they recognize that defensively there will be time they are able to stretch defensively and pick off passes and applying more pressure to wing players is something he feels that favors them. The Knights will face the winner of Whitewater and Holy Innocents in the quarterfinals.