Then there's the Apex girls lacrosse team, who relishes the challenge to prove just how wide the gap is between it and the rest of the state. On Saturday, the final score said the difference between No. 1 and No. 5 was 19 goals.

Apex (12-0) came into the Crusaders' home field and annihilated the fifth-ranked Cardinal Gibbons 20-1.

Only No. 2 Wilmington Hoggard (14-12 final) has kept the margin of victory lower than eight. The Cougars have defeated fellow six top 10 opponents by an average of 10.8 goals.

The ability to be dominant in high-profile games has a lot to do with how last season ended for the Cougars. Apex saw its three-year state championship streak snap early in the 2010 NCHSAA playoffs.

"Every huddle we have, it's always thinking to last season how we don't want that to ever happen again," senior Cawley Bromley said. "We come into every game thinking 'this is not going to be like last year.'"

No Apex player wants to see a repeat of last year. So they prepare for the worst.

"We came up thinking they were going to be just as good as us," senior Apex goalie Asia Moore said. "We didn't expect anything from them that we couldn't handle. We just came out and played our game."

Moore was a big reason for Apex's success. She saved nine of the 10 shots on goal she faced.

Apex coach Jenn Flaherty was especially impressed with Moore, calling her an example to the rest of the team for her work ethic.

"Jenn and I have been working so hard on just perfecting my angles and making sure I'm meeting the ball really well and all of that has benefited me in the past three days," Moore said.

Apex's scoring started early, jumping out to a 5-0 lead in the game's first six minutes. Gibbons' Shelby Scanlin scored to temporarily stop the bleeding, but the Cougars scored nine more in the first half to go up 14-1 at intermission.

Apex didn't score often in the second half, but didn't need to with such a lopsided lead. Gibbons' goalies saved just three of the 23 shots on goal they faced.

Gibbons remains in first in Conference 3, while Apex is first in Conference 2.

"They're a great team. We know what we need to work on now," Crusaders coach Prudence Lyon said. "We won't let this get us down. We'll use it and it'll make us better."

Katie Burnet led the scoring for Apex with five goals. Bromley led the team in points with four goals and four assists, while Katie McLaughlin posted three goals and two assists.

Kristi Marks, Katie Wagner and Casey Nesbitt scored two goals apiece, while Sarah Giocanda and Beth Fellows each totaled one goal.

Kristen Camejo, Wagner, Nesbitt and Burnet all had exactly one assist.

"We don't have just one person who can take the ball, shoot and score," Bromley said. "We have the entire offense [and] entire defense who can do that."