We are down to the final four teams in 6A-7A, with the semifinal games to be played on Wednesday. On the boys’ side, the No. 3 North Gwinnett Bulldogs will host the No. 2 Lassiter Trojans, while the top-ranked Lambert Longhorns will travel to the No. 4 Centennial Knights.
On the girls’ side, the No. 2 Lassiter Lady Trojans travel to the No. 6 Mill Creek Lady and top-ranked Milton Lady War Eagles host the No. 7 Walton Lady Raiders.
Before the playoffs began, I made predictions for how the 6A-7A tournaments would unfold. I am 4-for-4 on the boys' side, but I missed on Walton and Mill Creek on the girls' side.
Below is a review of my predictions. For the most updated brackets, go here.
Boys
Notes
- I've only missed on two games thus far in the entire bracket and I don't see that changing moving forward. The closest any team has come to the No. 1 Longhorns is seven goals, when they beat unranked Pope 13-6 in the quarterfinals.
- Both games on the left side of the bracket were close, with the Bulldogs edging No. 9 Roswell 16-14 and the Trojans slipping past Milton 8-6. The Knights beat Allatoona 17-3.
- North Gwinnett is in the final four for the second time in three seasons but has never been to the championship. The Trojans are the defending state champions and are in the semifinals for a third consecutive year. Lambert is seeking its fourth state title since 2011. Centennial is in the final four for the third consecutive season and is seeking its second title since 2013.
Girls
Notes
- I'm not sure why I didn't just pencil in Walton and Milton to meet in the playoffs. After all, that's only happened in seven of their last nine state tournaments, including in the championship game three straight seasons from 2014-16. Milton has one all of those postseason meetings except for the 2016 title game.
- The other two programs — Lassiter and Mill Creek — have never won state titles. Lassiter was a runner-up in '12 and '10.
- It's hard to imagine any team but Milton winning the title. Here's the scores of their playoff wins thus far: 19-0, 18-2 and 17-2. Milton has won a state championship every year but two since 2005 and have won seven of the last eight.
Check back on Friday for a look at A-5A.
