St. Pius X defense 'stepped up hard' in opening round of GHSA playoffs
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While the St. Pius Golden Lions may not have closed out the regular season in the manner which they would have preferred, they opened the Georgia High School Association DIV I boys lacrosse state championship tournament in the most important way as they defeated the Mount Paran Eagles 13-10 in the first round.
"We have a group that hasn't played a lot, on offense in particular and the improvement from mid-February to now is drastic," St. Pius X coach, Doug Nelson, said following the Golden Lions' win on Tuesday, praising his players for their commitment to improve throughout the season and into the postseason. "We wouldn't be in this game in February and I'm just proud as heck of these guys," Nelson said of the Golden Lions, who opened Tuesday's match with a 4-0 first quarter performance.
"I'm absolutely proud of them," Nelson continued as he credited the St. Pius X defense for how well they played, in particular once junior and Army commit, Grant Kingsbury, left them game early due to injury and the Golden Lions were able to hold the Eagles to one goal in the first half. "That hurt us little bit because we don't have that much depth, but those guys stepped up and they did a great job," Nelson said.
Now with their attention turned to the round of 16, the Golden Lions will prepare to face the Lovett Lions, who defeated them late last month 10-6 after St. Pius X led at halftime. "They clamped down on us so we need to worry about what they did to us and try to adjust as well as look at what we did wrong, especially some of those goals we gave up towards the end where people were wide open in the middle," Nelson said.
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