Briarwood girls soccer team finishes area play perfect

Published 12:48 pm Wednesday, April 12, 2023

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By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Managing Editor

NORTH SHELBY – The Briarwood girls soccer team has officially closed out area play with a perfect record and will enter the 2023 postseason as a strong contender for a Class 6A State Championship.

Ranked No. 2 in the 6A classification entering their matchup with Indian Springs on Tuesday, April 11, the Lions were looking to continue an impressive season by closing out area play undefeated.

With a 6-0 victory over Springs already on the resume, Briarwood held plenty of confidence heading into the matchup, and it showed with another six-goal performance this time around.

The Lions weren’t able to put together another shutout, but they gave up just one goal en route to picking up a 6-1 victory that cemented a 6-0 record in the area to finish off an impressive area championship run.

The victory came after a few tightly-contested games in a row, especially in a 3-2 area win over Helena that officially gave the team the area title back on April 5.

With the victory, Briarwood has now won nine in a row and improved to 12-2-1 overall on the season with a 5-4 loss to Thompson, a 1-1 tie against St. Luke’s Episcopal and a 4-3 loss to No. 1 Homewood the only blemishes.

The Lions have given up three goals or less in all but three of their 15 games this season, while they have posted shutouts in seven and given up one or less in nine.

In addition to the defensive success, the offense has scored three or more in all but the 1-1 tie against St. Luke’s this season. They are the only team to score more than two goals against No. 1 Homewood this season.

Briarwood’s final games for the regular season will come against Chelsea, Oak Mountain and Spain Park, as the Lions take on three 280-area rivals to end the season and prepare for the postseason.