Soccer came to an end at high schools around Rockdale on Wednesday night, as three teams ran into tougher competition, known as Region 5-AAAA.
 Salem's girls, the No. 5 ranked team in the state, Heritage girls and Heritage boys all were eliminated from the 2010 Class AAAA playoffs in the first round, providing a sample of Region 8-AAAA's efforts against arguably the state's toughest region.
 The Lady Patriots lost to state-ranked No. 4 McIntosh - the No. 3 seed out of Region 5 - 4-0, before the Heritage boys' team fell 6-0 to Whitewater in the second game of a double header.
 Cross town Salem was also handed a defeat, falling 3-0 to Northgate, the fourth-seeded team out of Region 5.
 "It's strange how many strong teams are in that region," Salem coach Heather Cheek said. "Teams that are first second and third in that region usually make it to the quarterfinal round."
 Out of the combined eight teams from the boys and girls sides of the brackets only one Region 8 team came away victorious.
 The No. 1 seeded team in the boys' Region 8-AAAA, Habersham dropped No. 4 state ranked Marist 5-0. But after that the rest of the matchups were pretty one sided.
 Apalachee fell to the No. 3 seeded, and No. 2 ranked in the state Starr's Mill 4-0, Heritage fell to the only Region 5 playoff team not ranked in the state and No. 1 ranked McIntosh eliminated Clarke Central 3-0.
 On the girls' side, Region 8-AAAA was swept out of the playoffs by the tougher Region 5.
 The only non-ranked team in the region, Northgate, eliminated Region 8's top-seeded Salem, setting the tone for the rest of the day.
 Winder-Barrow lost to No. 2 ranked Starr's Mill 5-2 and Loganville was outmatched against No. 1 seeded and ranked Whitewater 5-0.
 "It's a tough region to win," Cheek said. "Even the fourth place team is not a slack team. Their fourth place team is still a really good team."

Northgate 3, Salem 0

 The Lady Seminoles, who topped Northgate 2-1 in the second round of the 2009 season, also won 6-4 I the season opener this year.
 Northgate put a goal in the net more than midway through the first half, and gave itself a 2-0 advantage 10 minutes before halftime.
 Salem couldn't get on the board the rest of the way, and fell behind 3-0 in the second half.
 "We didn't play our game like we could," Cheek said. "I don't know if it was nerves or what, but they weren't able to get the balls to go where they wanted to go. Every time we did get the ball and started putting something together, it seemed like multiple people were on us. We weren't able to create space we needed to use our passing and possession."

McIntosh 4, Heritage 0

 With Northgate being the No. 3 seed, they weren't the only visiting team to win out of the girls Region 5-AAAA contingent as McIntosh advanced.
 The Chiefs scored just around two minutes into the game, when Katie Cameron found the back of the net. Emily Lecomte knocked in the second goal on a left-footed blast past goalkeeper Melissa Drish.
 Drish was challenged throughout the night as McIntosh controlled much of the possession.
 The second half continued to be successful for the Chiefs, as they went up 3-0 on Christian Villanueva's goal on Cameron's corner kick. Gabri Seiler finished the scoring with 22:57 to play.
 "They totally outplayed us," Heritage coach Chad Suddeth said. "You have to give props to McIntosh. (Their coach) Marcia (Clark) has a fantastic bunch, and gets everything out of them."
 The Lady Patriots had trouble getting the ball up past their back third, and McIntosh was quick to capitalize.
 "We made a few uncharacteristic mistakes in the back," Suddeth said. We kind of hung Melissa out to dry on a couple of those goals, she made a couple fantastic saves, but she can't make all of them."
 The Lady Patriots weren't the only team to have trouble getting the ball out of the defensive zone at Heritage on Wednesday.

Whitewater 6, Heritage 0

 The boys' squad also couldn't get the ball up to its midfield at times, leading to some of Whitewater's six goals.
 The Patriots went down 2-0 in the first half thanks to a goal from Matt Herget and another from Justin Meyer.
 The game remained close for the first ten minutes of the second half, before Griffin Gainer's shot fell past Heritage goalkeeper Bradley Saindon.
 "We gave them the first two goals in back third, but we sorted it out at halftime," Heritage coach Brandon Stewart said. "In the first 10 minutes of the second half, we were super dangerous, but couldn't make a goal. Then we leaked kind of a soft third goal.
 "Down 2-0 is achievable, but 3-0 is a big mountain. After that third if you don't get it right back and it goes on for 5 or 6 minutes, than you're in for a mountain climb."