Lake Norman put some of its best feet forward during the opening round of the 4A state playoffs.
The host Wildcats, seeded second from the I-Meck Conference, tied their season's second-highest number of goals scored in a single match and did so for the first time in nearly two months with a 5-0 high-heeling past Sun Valley on Wednesday.
"We found some offense tonight,'' said Jon Mertes, Lake Norman's head coach.
The Wildcats (14-6-2 overall) gathered multiple tallies from two different sources in spreading out the damage and earning the right to advance into Saturday night's second-round play.
Senior captain forward Parker Cromie headed in a short shot to get the scoring started in the first half.
He then added to the goal count by punching in the first of three notches managed by the home team in the second 40-minute period.
Also for the winners, senior forward Chandler Baucom made his presence felt early and late.
Baucom knocked in what stood up as the second goal, helping push Lake Norman out to the 2-0 lead in place at the intermission break before he also closed out the goal production on a solo breakaway goal in the final minute-plus of play.
In between all that scoring that allowed Lake Norman to match the five goals it last scored in a win over North Iredell in early September, junior midfielder Marcus Lohrman also hit the visiting Spartans' target.
"Once we got it going,'' summed up Mertes, "we took care of business. The name of the game now is win and advance."
With Lake Norman providing all the game's goals, the trio of keepers Nick Hensley, Dalton Bauer and Patrick Reilly all stood watch at various times to keep Sun Valley (11-12) from finding the mark.
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