Open up your history books, McIntosh, and make some room for your school’s boys lacrosse team.

The eighth-ranked Chiefs withstood a furious comeback by the sixth-ranked St. Pius Golden Lions to hold on for a 5-4 victory and advance to the semifinals of the state playoffs for the first time in the school’s four-year history of playing lacrosse Saturday afternoon in Peachtree City.

“We’ve lost a couple of games at the end, but today the kids showed the heart of a lion, and they hung in there,” McIntosh coach Mike Muetzel said. “I’m so proud of them. It’s a good team victory.”

McIntosh appeared to have the match in hand, holding a commanding 5-0 lead late in the third quarter.

But the Golden Lions stormed back with four consecutive goals — three of which came in the fourth quarter, and two of which were scored by Nick Comiskey — to slash the Chiefs’ lead to one.

The problem for St Pius was, it was too little, too late; its final goal was scored as time expired.

Another problem for St Pius was McIntosh goalkeeper Andrew Huffman, who made a heads-up, game-saving save 20 seconds before St. Pius' final goal. The match would have went into overtime if it weren't for Huffman, who deflected a shot from point-blank range with a crowd of players screening him and scooped up the ball just before it could cross the goal line.

The normally high-scoring Chiefs pelted St. Pius’ net with shots in the first half, but only three managed to find the back of the net.

McIntosh’s Garrett Lee beat St. Pius goalkeeper Jack Storrs twice in the first half; Lee opened the scoring with an unassisted goal less than a minute into the match, and he crashed the right side of the net and snuck the ball into the corner of the net with 10:24 left in the second quarter.

Zack Ward set up McIntosh’s third goal of the first half, tossing the ball from behind the net out front to Kell Harrison, who caught it on the run and fired it into the net.

DJ Ward and Nicco DeRosa scored on shots off loose balls within feet of St. Pius’ net in the first two minutes of the second half to increase McIntosh’s lead to 5-0.

St. Pius broke the shutout with 23.7 seconds left in the third quarter, zipping a 10-yard shot past Huffman.

Comiskey sparked St. Pius’ rally with back-to-back goals within the first two minutes of the fourth quarter, including a behind-the-back, over-the-shoulder goal.

Muetzel wasn’t surprised by St. Pius' late rally.

“Frankly speaking, we kind of expected it,” Muetzel said. “St. Pius has come back all season. We faced a great team.”

McIntosh will play host to the winner of Northview-Westminster on Wednesday.