NEW HOPE — Tuesday’s MHSAA Class 5A second-round soccer games at New Hope were going to be a fight from the start.

With poor weather conditions expected, the battle of possession had major implications for who would move on to the quarterfinals.

The Trojans, district champions in girls and boys soccer, had the upper hand in the regular season and rightfully earned a place to host at home, but when it came to urgency, New Hope had none.

What resulted was a battle to get the ball out of their side of the field and two possession-dominating performances from Lafayette and Saltillo, who combined to score nine goals as the Trojans were sent home packing.

“After they scored that second goal, we started hanging our heads,” winger Caleigh Carter said. “We didn’t really want it as much as we said that we did, but I do think that if we would have kept pushing 100 percent, we could have kept up with them.”

The girls faced a juggernaut in Lafayette, which defeated Greenville in its first-round game, 11-0. The Trojans found themselves in a quick 1-0 deficit in the second minute.

A goal from Carter equalized things going into half, but the constant pressure the Commodores were able to put on New Hope in the first 10-20 minutes of the game returned in the second half.

Lafayette’s back line was more physical and much taller than the Trojans forwards, making it easy to cut out passes and prevent through balls from going anywhere near goal.

The air quickly escaped from the balloon after a sequence of two goals in three minutes for Lafayette, the proverbial nail in the coffin in a 5-1 loss.

Things devolved much quicker in the boys game, facing another high-powered offense in Saltillo, who scored eight goals on Forest Hill in the first round.

“We came up flat in the first 10, 20 minutes, and they put three in the back of the net,” New Hope head coach Andrew Olsen said. 

A quick three goals in the first 10 minutes of play saw the Trojans staring down at a big deficit early on, a tough thing for any team to come back from, especially in a win-or-go-home situation like the postseason.

Saltillo’s first wave of offense made the difference in the end, but New Hope started to find some consistent breakthroughs as the game progressed, getting in inside the back line and putting shots on goal and creating promising offensive chances.

“In our program, we will always strive for 100 percent attitude,” Olsen said. “They could have easily just laid down and given up, but we try to coach something different where we’re always in the fight as long as there’s time left on the clock.

“After those three goals, we took a deep breath, and the guys settled in.”

Chances were better, but New Hope struggled to find the back of the net, scoring once in the second half in what felt like a consolation goal as Saltillo won, 4-1.