VALDOSTA — Lowndes soccer brought out the fans Wednesday evening.

The Vikings just couldn’t the victory, falling 5-1 against the Brookwood Broncos in the second round of the Class 7A playoffs.

“It’s a disappointing end to a successful season,’ said Lowndes head coach Jordan Breit. “I’m happy with what they accomplished. I’m proud of the streaks of great soccer that we put together tonight, we just couldn’t put it all together for 80 minutes.”

A sizable crowd lined the near side of the Lowndes soccer field to watch the home team host the Broncos, and although the Vikings were ultimately eliminated from the postseason, the match can only aid the effort to grow the sport in South Georgia.

Lowndes (13-7, 6-0 Region 1-7A) looked as if it was on a mission when it crushed North Cobb 7-0 in the first round, but the Vikings came out flat against Brookwood (14-5-1, 4-2 Region 7-7A), and the Broncos quickly took advantage.

Using clean, safe passes, Brookwood was able to consistently work the ball down the field and put pressure on Lowndes’ defense, leading to three goals in the first 40 minutes of play.

“That’s what we expected them to come in here and be able to do,” Breit said. “You’ve seen our boys, and you’ve heard them talking, they feel, and I agree, we underperformed tonight.

“We were not able to match their pace or just their physicality, and it showed.”

The Broncos athleticism allowed them to pressure the Viking ball-handlers while continuing to play the passing lanes, often forcing the Vikings to make tough, risky passes — especially as the game got further away in the second half.

Lowndes did have its chances in the first half to keep things close, but it simply came down to a few missed shots.

“Skill-wise, we had lots of opportunities,” Breit said. “We out-shot them, it didn’t go in. That happens.”

It looked as if the Vikings might have an opportunity to build some momentum in the second half when keeper Ian Lamp made a tremendous diving stop of a close-range penalty kick awarded to a Bronco player.

Lamp stonewalled the attempt with just under 35 minutes to play, and popped up to congratulatory pats from his teammates.

But a few seconds later, Brookwood was able to find the back of the net anyways, pushing their lead to 4-0 and putting a serious dent in Lowndes’ comeback hopes.

The Broncos tacked on their fifth goal five minutes later before Chris Snellgrove scored the Vikings’ lone goal of the match on a penalty kick with 21:18 remaining.

Despite the bitter ending to the season, Lowndes got another step closer to realizing its goal of turning the region into a soccer hotbed this year.

The Vikings have gone 32-2 in region play over the past five seasons, and now the community is starting to take notice and attend the games in larger numbers.

Lowndes also started up a ninth grade team this season, giving 16 more kids an opportunity to play soccer that otherwise wouldn’t have.

“We’re trying to make an impact in South Georgia,” Breit said. “We want to be the premiere program in our area, south of Macon, south of Atlanta. I think we continue to do that, I think we continue to grow soccer locally in a lot of the offseason stuff we do with camps, our middle school program, with our summer soccer.

“It really has been a huge impact for us at the high school, just seeing those kids and having them touch the ball more and more and more at a competitive level. I think for us to really breakthrough to that next level, it’s just going to take that much more commitment from a larger base.”

Derrick Davis is the sports editor at the Valdosta Daily Times.