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Briarwood’s girls soccer team won their sixth game in the last seven matches on March 30 with a 6-0 shutout against 1A-3A No. 3 Westminster at Oak Mountain. (For the Reporter/Dawn Harrison)

By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Managing Editor 

NORTH SHELBY – Briarwood’s girls soccer team has quietly worked its way up the rankings this season in Class 6A, and on Tuesday, March 30, the Lions continued to prove they are more than deserving of the recognition.

Taking on 1A-3A No. 3 Westminster at Oak Mountain, Briarwood continued an impressive stretch of play with a 6-0 shutout victory to improve to 9-6 on the season.

With the win, the Lions picked up their sixth win in the last seven matches and continued to show strong play on defense.

Competing in an area with No. 1 Homewood, No. 4 Chelsea and No. 7 Mountain Brook, the third-ranked Lions have competed against one of the state’s most difficult schedules but seem to have hit a groove.

They have lost twice to Homewood already, but since losing to the Patriots 5-0 on Feb. 26, they’ve given up no more than two goals in a game with wins against Chelsea and Mountain Brook by final scores of 2-1 and 3-1, respectively.

Briarwood’s only loss in the last seven games came against Homewood, but it came by a final score of 1-0, showing the team’s improvement.

With their wins against Chelsea and Mountain Brook, the Lions have the advantage for the second playoff spot out of the area with games against each still left on the schedule.

Before those games, however, the Lions took on Westminster and put together another strong performance against the Knights.

It took 22 minutes for Briarwood to score, but the Lions struck with 18 minutes left in the first half. That opened the flood gates, as Briarwood scored two quick goals after that to take a 3-0 lead into the break.

The Lions then came out and scored three more in the second half, two of which came in the final 7:13 of the game, to pick up the 6-0 shutout.

Briarwood had five different players score in the victory.

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