LEXINGTON -- Lexington made the most of its first home soccer playoff game in more than a decade, racing past Starmount 5-2 on Wednesday night.

The Yellow Jackets scored twice in the first half and then answered with three second-half goals after the Rams rallied to tie the score 2-2.

Lexington, which went from worst to second place in its conference over the past year, moves on to Saturday's second round of the 2A playoffs, while Starmount sees its season end at 9-9.

"This was not the result we wanted by far, but we had our chances," Rams coach Dale Draughn said. "We just could not finish the ball ... I am proud of this team -- they could have just thrown in the towel early on but they stayed together and worked together to get us to this point."

The Rams had a tough time dealing with Lexington's speed. Four of five Yellow Jacket goals came on breakaways.

Lexington got on the board quickly, with forward Martin Bahena heading a shot into the goal in the first four minutes.

Felipe Sanchez scored on a breakaway with 12:39 left in the opening half, putting Lexington up 2-0.

Draughn said he was proud his team didn't panic at this point but fought back to tie the contest before the half.

Mauricio Lopez got the first goal back for the Rams, converting an assist by Michael Prigmore into a score with 6:33 left in the half. Pedro Morales netted a second goal off an assist from Victor Navarro with 58 seconds left before the break.

Starmount may have had the momentum going into halftime but Lexington quickly took it back. Bahena scored again two minutes into the second half, and the Yellow Jackets survived a few close calls to keep the lead the rest of the night. Goals in the final 10 minutes by Carlos Solis and Matt Effinger put things out of reach for Starmount.

"We outshot the Yellow Jackets on goal (12-9) but they took advantage of their shots on goal and made them count, where we did not," Draughn said.

Only one of four Mountain Valley 2A teams who played Wednesday night won. Wilkes Central beat MVAC rival Ashe County 4-0 to advance. Surry Central lost 1-0 in double overtime to Patton.

In the 1A playoffs, Elkin suffered a 10-0 loss to Polk County, which is ranked No. fifth in the state.

The Buckin' Elks' season concludes at 10-10-2.

In other playoff games involving Northwest 1A teams, Bishop McGuinness beat Mount Airy 6-0, Jordan-Matthews topped West Wilkes 1-0, East Montgomery edged South Stokes 4-3,