APEX - A battle between the state's top-ranked girls lacrosse teams on Tuesday night saw three-time defending state champion Apex overwhelm No. 2 Green Hope (5-1, 3-1) from the start en route to a 11-7 win.

"I'm so happy by the way the girls played. They played great, they played with their hearts, they came out to win and they did it," first-year Apex coach Jennifer Flaherty said. "We played a heck of a team. Green Hope is awesome, they've got some great players, great coach and I'm really psyched to play them again."

As much as the Cougars (6-0, 4-0), would like to relish defending their top spot in the statewide rankings, a scary injury in the second half nearly put a damper on the celebration.

Apex's Cawley Bromley, arguably the best player in the state, went down hard with 14:02 left in the game as her right knee buckled under her.

The junior, already playing with a brace on her left knee, let out a blood-curdling scream, and her sobs -- which were purposefully drowned by music on the PA system -- continued even after she was carted to the sideline.

Flaherty was optimistic about her star player, however, despite the initial horror surrounding the injury.

"She's doing OK. She got hit in the knee -- went down hard on her knee -- but she's hopefully going to come back soon," Flaherty said. "As of now, our trainer says she's doing all right -- no negative tests, so it's all positive as of now."

Apex wasted no time jumping out to a 7-2 lead at halftime.

Bromley scored unassisted just 2:19 into the game to put Apex on top. Kristi Marks and Katie McLaughlin scored within the next seven minutes to put Apex up 3-0 with 15:18 to go in the first half.

Apex held the lead the rest of the way thanks to stellar defense by goalie Asia Moore.

"I just held my position, I talked to my defense, directed them and also did my job," Moore said. "My heart's still beating, I'm so excited."

A bewildered Green Hope squad regrouped and scored at the 11:59 mark on a Rachel Chapla goal.

After Marks tallied another Apex goal, the Falcons' Maggie Auslander found the net to make it 4-2.

But six of the next seven goals belonged to the Cougars.

Dana Felder had one goal and an assist and McLauglin added a second goal. Casey Nesbitt tallied two goals and an assist.

Marks was the most active of the bunch, scoring three goals and handing out four assists.

"That's the best thing about our team," Marks said. "Some teams have two or three good players -- our whole entire team, even our bench, is stacked so anybody can come in and step up and that's exactly what we did today."

Green Hope seemed to take some momentum after Bromley, who had three goals and an assist, left the game with the score 10-4. But too much time had passed to catch up with the three-time champs.

"I don't think it was too much to overcome, I think we started too late in general. They're a good match for us on the field. They came better prepared tonight than we did," Falcons coach Chrissy Silbey said. "More than anything, it's a mental battle that we lost. Mentally, they were more prepared for this game than we were. In the end, nerves and everything else came out far more in us than it did them."

The two programs entered this season having combined to win the last five state championships.

Both coaches were already looking forward to the next meeting -- with Green Hope wanting a much different result.

"I expect [the team] to play like Green Hope next time," Silbey said.