"When you get young kids on a stage that many of them have yet to compete on, anything can happen," Marshall said. "You try to prepare them for everything you think that could crop up during the course of a game, but you just never know how they'll respond to something that happens in the spur of the moment."

The Lions played Hilliard Davidson in a Division I regional semifinal last Tuesday. The winner plays Saturday at Dublin Scioto against Dublin Jerome or Olentangy Orange in a regional final. Before last Tuesday, Jerome was 11-7-1 overall and Orange was 16-1-1.

The Lions improved to 18-0-1 by defeating Dublin Coffman 1-0 last Saturday at Wellington to capture a district championship.

Gahanna has beaten both Orange and Jerome during the regular season.

The Lions defeated Orange 2-0 on Sept. 10. Junior forwards Chris Davis and Wil Trapp scored and senior Ryan Grimme made eight saves, ties his season high.

Gahanna was ranked second in the final state poll, behind Cleveland St. Ignatius. Massillon Jackson was third and Orange finished fourth. The Lions were the top seed in the district tournament and the Pioneers were second.

"It'd be a little motivation for us," Orange coach Scott Bryant said of the potential rematch against Gahanna. "They're our only loss and they beat us at our place. One of the kids' goals was to go undefeated at home."

In the regular-season meeting, standout forward Aaron Horton was one of two Orange starters who did not play. Gahanna also was missing a pair of starters who were out with the flu.

"We've seen them enough to know that Horton will cause troubles for our defenders," Marshall said. "In that game, it rained and we played very well despite, missing a couple of guys. If we play again, it could be anybody's game.

"You've got two teams that could be in the state final if they were on opposite sides of the bracket. Orange is strong, fast and can shoot and they have some good players around Horton. It would be a test for both defenses because we think our forwards could cause them some troubles as well."

The Lions beat Jerome 3-0 on Sept. 24. Davis, Jon Grooms and Saad Abdul-Salaam all scored. Grimme had one save for Gahanna, which led 2-0 at halftime. Orange beat Jerome 4-0 during the regular season.

"Jerome is also a very solid team," Marshall said. "I don't think you can point to those two scores earlier this year and expect the same thing to happen. They've improved since then and soccer is a funny game. Anything can happen."

Orange beat Westerville North 5-0 to win its district title last Saturday and Jerome, which reached a state semifinal last season, topped Olentangy Liberty 2-1 for its championship.

The regional champion plays 7 p.m. Tuesday at Cedarville University against West Chester Lakota West, Kettering Fairmont, Beavercreek or Mason in a state semifinal. Mason was sixth in the final state poll and Beavercreek was ninth.

The state final is at 7 p.m. Nov. 13 in Crew Stadium.

In the district final, senior midfielder Cody Popelas knocked in his fourth goal of the postseason with 18 minutes, 55 seconds remaining in the second half.

Gahanna outshot Coffman 17-7 and produced eight corner kicks, with Coffman managing just one.

"We created a lot of chances, especially in the first half, but couldn't get any shots in the goal," Trapp said. "I told the guys to just keep plugging away and we'd get one. You can't get frustrated. You have to maintain your composure and just keep getting after it."

Grimme made three saves.

•The girls team lost to fifth-seeded Dublin Coffman 1-0 in a Division I district semifinal Oct. 27 to finish 11-5-3.

Amber Kern scored in the first half for the Shamrocks, who then upset second-seeded Watterson 2-0 last Saturday to win a district championship. They were 11-5-3 before playing Pickerington North in a regional semifinal last Wednesday.

Shae Ferguson had four saves for the Lions, who struggled to get shots past Shamrocks defenders to Coffman keeper Cassie Lawrence. She made one save.

Gahanna, which has never won a district championship, had defeated Watkins Memorial 4-1 on Oct. 20 and Hilliard Darby 4-1 on Oct. 22 in the first two rounds.

There were three Central District winners and the Lions lost to two of them in one-goal games. They fell to North 2-1 on Sept. 22 during a four-game losing streak.