The Canes were able to hang tough through 40 minutes of play against the state's No. 4-ranked Buccaneers and trailed just 1-0 at the break.
The loss dropped the Lady Canes (6-4, 5-1) into a tie with Heritage High for second place in Region 7-AAA while Allatoona improved to 7-2-1, 5-0. Heritage entered the evening with a 5-1 region record.
"We played a really good first half," Lowe said. "We played a system almost perfectly. It was absorb their offensive shots and get the ball out and hope for a one-on-one into the goal. We almost had that twice."
He said it was a tough loss but despite the score, he saw some positive things in Cartersville's play.
"We played the system almost perfectly except for a ball our guys thought had gone out of bounds and so they slowed down. The other team played to the whistle, which we didn't do, and they scored."
The two teams played much of the first half with goose eggs showing on the scoreboard. Then Allatoona scored in the contest's 22nd minute and took a 1-0 lead that held up through the break.
The second half was not as competitive.
In the contest's 44th minute, Allatoona darted through Cartersville's defense to find the net from the left side a second time, going up 2-0. Five minutes later, the Buccaneers zipped toward the goal from near midfield and found netting for a 3-0 lead at the 48th minute. The Buccaneers scored their fourth point in the 57th minute and closed out their scoring in the 61st minute.
Cartersville answered one of those goals in the 71st minute when Victoria Everhard dribbled the ball from midfield and pooched a kick to Stefanie Will who dribbled about three steps and sent the ball just over the head of the Buccaneers' goalie, who'd come out in an attempt to intercept.
Lowe said his offensive move was made to give Cartersville more shots on goal.
"I decided to try to get a little offense going and some of our offensive people into their half of the field in the second half," Lowe said. "[Allatoona] took advantage of some open areas in our team. Allatoona's a really good team and skilled. If you make a mistake, they take advantage of it and they did against us. They scored three quick goals and made it 4-0 with about 25 minutes left. That's a hard position to be in if you are the team that's losing, especially against a great team like Allatoona."
Lowe said though the contest did not turn out as he wished, he saw some very good things about Cartersville.
"Our players didn't quit. They kept working hard. They picked themselves up and got back into things," he said. "They played competitively with them after that. They had us 4-0 with 25 minutes left. They scored one goal the rest of the way. They have not been scored on very much. It's never good to lose, especially a region game, but I found out my team has heart, that they will not quit and that even when things go wrong they are fighting hard. We scored. I was proud of them."
He praised the play of several Lady Canes.
"As usual, Sydney James was incredible," Lowe said. "She's got to be the best goal keeper, I think, I've seen in this region. She's just really amazing for a high school junior. Molly Acuff, Meredith Holmes, Kaeli McDermott and Stefanie Will also played real well for us. Anna Phillips also played real well.
"But the fact is Allatoona is a really good team. They took advantage of our mistakes. We've got a lot of practices and I'm looking forward to the rest of the season. Our goal is to win one game in the state playoffs. If you win one game, you might win two."
Cartersville next plays April 11 at Southeast Whitfield, with play to start at 5 p.m.