Sulphur's Graysen Trahan battles with East Ascension's Taylor Carty for possession during a playoff game on Thursday at Matt Walker Memorial Stadium. (Rodrick Anderson / American Press)

SULPHUR — After falling behind in the first half, the Sulphur Tors pushed hard in the second half, but East Ascension held off each attack to win 1-0 in the bi-district round of the Division I girls soccer playoffs Thursday evening at Matt Walker Memorial Stadium.

“I am very proud of the girls, and the way they played tonight,” Sulphur head coach Hunter Patton said. “They worked hard, and they never gave up.

“We just didn’t come up with the win. We had a little bad luck at one part of the first half. I am very proud of the work ethic this team had all season.”

The No. 14 Tors (10-8-3) played a home postseason game for the first time since 2019 and controlled the time of possession in the first half, but it was the No. 19 Spartans (11-10) that went into halftime with the lead. Taylor Carty scored the only goal of the game in the 33rd minute. Leah Pranskey was credited with the assist.

Sulphur had four corner kicks and two free kicks deep in Spartan territory in the second half, and Adyson had a shot stopped by Spartan keeper Mirlay Bailon in the 52nd minute.

“I think we held possession very well,” Patton said. “We worked much better as a team than other games before.

“We went out there played our best and played aggressively. I was thinking we were going to go into overtime until they put that goal in. I was hoping to get a goal to tie it up and go to overtime or PKs, but it just didn’t work out for us today.”