MACON - St. Pius senior Louie Aponte scored the game’s only goal midway through the first half to lead the top-ranked Golden Lions to a 1-0 victory over Cross Keys in the Class AAAA boys soccer championship game Thursday at Mercer University's Five Star Stadium.
The victory gave the Golden Lions their third consecutive state championship and fifth in seven years, and it completed a sweep of the Class AAAA titles after the St. Pius girls beat Marist on penalty kicks earlier in the evening.
Aponte lofted a chip shot from about 30 yards out on the left side that went over the head of Cross Keys goalkeeper Alexis Briceno and into the top right corner of the goal with 19:36 to play in the half. Cross Keys made a couple of runs at the net in the second half, but its best chance at tying the game came when Gilberto Ramos hit the crossbar with 30 seconds remaining.
St. Pius (22-0) won the regular-season game against its Region 6-AAAAA rival 2-0 on Feb. 10.
The championship game appearance was the first in program history for Cross Keys, which has won two state championships in any sport (1961 wrestling and 2002 boys basketball) in its history.
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