Here are some of the top stories in girls soccer this week:
*Another tight race in 4-AAAAA: Top-ranked Northgate, the defending Class AAAAA champion, suffered its first loss of the season and had an 18-game overall winning streak snapped when it lost 1-0 on Monday against region rival McIntosh, which was No. 2 in the most recent Score Atlanta and Eurosport rankings. McIntosh's Taylor Dowse scored the only goal on a direct kick with 1:18 remaining. McIntosh (10-0 going into the weekend) beat Northgate 3-1 during the regular season last year and won the 4-AAAAA regular-season title, but the Vikings won the rematch 2-1 in the state semifinals. Northgate rebounded from Monday's loss with a 4-0 victory Wednesday against Carrollton and took a 10-1 record into Friday's matchup with third-ranked Starr's Mill, which was unbeaten in region play going into the game. Northgate's Reese Weaver scored twice against the Trojans.
*Oconee County scoring record: Anna Kate Brown set a school record for most goals in a game by any player, boys or girls, with six in Oconee County's recent 14-4 victory against Franklin County, according to the Oconee Enterprise. Brown added another goal less than three minutes into the next match, a 3-0 victory against Lakeside-Evans. "I've never come close to something like that," Brown told the Enterprise. "The most I've ever had was probably three [in a single game]. I didn't realize I had six until the end of the game. I was there at the right time and I was just really accurate that game." Oconee County, ranked No. 6 in Class AAA by Score Atlanta and No. 7 by Eurosport, was 8-2 going into weekend games against Hart County and Greenbrier.
*DeKalb County leaders: Tucker's Daijah De Ramus is the new goal-scoring leader in DeKalb County with 17 in the team's 6-2 start, according to stats released by the county on Wednesday. She also is sixth in assists with six. Heather Mase of Druid Hills is second in goals with 15, followed by Mia Carradine of Towers and Danielle Dean of Arabia Mountain with 13. Arabia Mountain's Juveina Hylton is the assist leader with nine, and Lakeside's Miranda McNalley is the leading goalkeeper with no goals allowed in six games played.
*Coming up: St. Pius, which has won four of the past five state championships in Class AAA, faces a grueling schedule to close out the regular season. The top-ranked Golden Lions (11-2 going into Friday's game against Class AA No. 2 Greater Atlanta Christian) will face second-ranked Blessed Trinity at home on Tuesday, followed by games against McIntosh (April 14, away), third-ranked Woodward Academy (April 17, home) and Class AAAAAA North Gwinnett (April 23, home). The Golden Lions had allowed just three goals during a 10-game winning streak heading into the weekend.
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