Fontainebleau senior Blake Forest netted the game’s only goal in the 43rd minute, helping the Bulldogs advance to the regional round of the state playoffs in a 1-0 victory over the Grace King Fighting Irish Friday at Lakeshore.

“We had a long throw-in from Sal (Bavido), got a deflection, I took a touch backwards, turned around and just hit it off the goalie’s hands and it went in,” Forest said.

FHS coach Budd Ditchendorf said Forest is the man.

Fontainebleau’s Dolapo Ogunniyi (5) battles with several Grace King players for a loose ball that gets sent back to FHS’ Reed Mulford during Friday’s playoff game at Lakeshore. (Staff Photo by Chris Kinkaid)

“He’s got 20 goals to his season. The team looks to him. Maybe we need a little diversity, sometimes not. The other guys can do it too, but Blake is clutch,” Ditchendorf said.

Ditchendorf also talked about how important the goal was to the play of the contest.

“It totally changed it because you saw Grace King even change the game. It kind of deflated them a little bit,” Ditchendorf said. “I think we figured them out a lot more in the second half and so it gave our guys some confidence on what they needed to do. It’s exactly what we talked about. Our best chance came off of what we talked about.”

No. 8 Fontainebleau (16-6-2, 12-2) advances to face the winner ninth seeded East Ascension and 24th ranked Carencro. Grace King (12-6-3, 8-2), the 25th seed, has its season come to an end.

In the first half, both teams had chances. During the first six minutes, each squad had some runs, but the defenses stepped up and made stops.

Fontainebleau had its best chance of the first half during the eighth minute. Dakoriye Charles got in to the box. Grace King’s goalkeeper came out. Charles sent the shot by him toward the goal, but Melin Portillo made a heads up defensive play and got the ball out of harms way.

The Bulldogs had another scoring chance and showed some great passing skills. Forest hit Reed Mulford and he sent it to Dolapo Ogunniyi, but his shot was high and over the goal.

Grace King had opportunities, but couldn’t capitalize. In the 14th minute, the Fighting Irish had a corner kick, but was unable to score.

FHS goalkeeper Andrew Tarbell was put to the test on a long shot by a Fighting Irish player when he had to make a diving save to his left in the 29th minute.

Tarbell said FHS’ defense played well throughout the match. He said they just sat back and let Grace King try and play balls over them. He also credited the center backs on their solid performances.

Early in the second half, Forest scored his goal. Six minutes later, FHS had a corner kick, which was eventually cleared.

Grace King had a shot in the 52nd minute, but it was high and over the goal.

The Bulldogs nearly took a two-goal lead. Off a free kick, Ogunniyi headed the ball toward the goal, but it was just wide left.

Grace King stepped up the offense near the end, but Fontainebleau’s defense was up to the task in capturing the victory.