‘They’ll have our attention.’ Wins set up postseason rematches for Lexington soccer teams.

Kasen Johnston scored the first three goals in Paul Laurence Dunbar’s 5-0 win over Great Crossing in the 11th Region Tournament boys soccer quarterfinals on the Warhawks’ home turf.

The game was one of four quarterfinals held Tuesday at the home of the respective 41st, 42nd, 43rd and 44th District champions who were drawn against the various district runners-up from last week.

In addition to Dunbar, Frederick Douglass, Henry Clay and Lafayette each won their matchups making for an all-Lexington semifinals round when the tournament resumes Thursday at Great Crossing High School.

With Dunbar facing elimination against the Warhawks (16-4-0), the 41st District champs, Johnston, a senior midfielder, didn’t know how he’d perform after feeling sick earlier in the day. But the brief illness didn’t seem to affect his feet.

“I was sick today. ... But my dad was talking about Michael Jordan when he got the flu, and he played really well,” Johnston said. “He told me to do the same thing.”

Dunbar was ranked No. 3 in the state in the final Maher Rankings of the regular season, but lost the 43rd District championship game to No. 6 Lafayette last week.

“We bounced back from Lafayette well,” said Johnston, who earned his team’s “man of the match” honor that comes with a ceremonial hard hat for the effort. “That game, we just didn’t want to pass to each other. I don’t know what it was, but we had some team bonding and we came back really strong in this game.”

Johnston scored from a Gio Chavez assist less than four minutes into the contest. Then barely two minutes into the second half, Ryan O’Hara shook his defender on the left wing and centered a pass into Johnston’s path for a 2-0 lead. Ten minutes later, Johnston scored on a long-range shot to put Dunbar up 3-0 and essentially seal the game.

Sidharth Ganeshbabu and Diego Mares tacked on goals in the last five minutes as the benches emptied for both teams.

The Lafayette game marked Dunbar’s first postseason loss since 2020. Dunbar coach James Wray felt his players tried to do too much on their own against the Generals instead of relying on each other.

“We went back and focused and said, ‘We’re not going to get through this if we don’t play together as a team,’” Wray said. “If we don’t play as a team, then we’re not going to be around very much longer because there’s so many good teams this year.”

Dunbar (15-3-5) next faces No. 7 Frederick Douglass, the team it has ousted from the last three region tournaments via penalty kick shootouts, including last season’s region championship.

The two met in this season’s opener on Aug. 8 and battled to a 3-3 tie.

“They’ll have our attention. We’ll be ready to play,” said Wray, who knows Douglass will throw everything it has at trying to end its postseason losing streak to the Bulldogs. “They play with so much emotion. They come out ready to play and they feed off their coach and that makes them hard to defend. They are going 100 percent the whole game and when you’ve got a team like that, it puts so much pressure on you.”

Tuesday’s other quarterfinals

Douglass 2, Model 0: Cooper Ranvier scored with about 10 minutes left in the first half and Brayan Martinez doubled the lead two minutes into the second half as the Broncos (15-2-3) shut out the Patriots (14-8-1).

After the win, Douglass coach Omar Shalash relished the chance to take on Dunbar once more with their seasons on the line.

“We couldn’t have asked for better,” Shalash said. “People think I’m crazy when I say that, but what better team to play in the first, second or third round. … Whatever happens, we’re going to leave it all out there.”

Lafayette 5, Frankfort 1: The Generals (15-3-1) made some halftime adjustments to shake off a sluggish 1-1 tie in the first half to pull away to an easy victory over the visiting Panthers (9-12-0).

Frankfort’s Stephane Bebe opened the scoring 16 minutes into the first half on a blast from more than 20 yards out. But Charlie Quinn rescued a tying goal just before the break for Lafayette.

“We were pretty tight in the first half for whatever reason,” Lafayette coach Chris Grimm said.

The Generals responded with a flurry of second-half goals. Meshaki Shendela quickly put the Generals into the lead and then assisted on Max Jacob’s goal a few minutes later. Alan Valenzuela then got an assist from Jacob as he put the Generals up 4-1 with 14 minutes left. Nadeer Duek capped the scoring.

Lafayette will face Henry Clay in Thursday’s semifinals, a team it beat 2-0 three weeks ago on the Blue Devils’ senior night. Grimm doesn’t think his team will take anything for granted.

“I’m not sure we have to do much to keep them focused,” Grimm said. “It’s Henry Clay and they’re always one of the top programs in the city every single year.”

Henry Clay 3, Madison Central 0: The visiting Blue Devils (12-6-3) fought off an early surge from the 44th District champion Indians (11-6-2), but got a goal from Connor Taylor in the first half and a goal from Marco Messerli and a penalty kick goal from Diego Sanchez in the second half for the win.

Henry Clay coach Jason Behler recalled that his team did not play well against Lafayette in its 2-0 loss on Sept. 26.

“We played pretty flat,” Behler said. “It wasn’t our best game, but I’m excited about the matchup and a chance to avenge one of our losses.”

Boys 11th Region Tournament

At Great Crossing High School

Thursday’s semifinals

6:30 p.m.: Lafayette vs. Henry Clay

8:30 p.m.: Paul Laurence Dunbar vs. Frederick Douglass

Saturday’s finals

2 p.m.: Championship game