Briarwood boys, girls soccer take down Thompson as four Lions finish with two goals

Published 3:19 pm Thursday, February 20, 2025

By Andrew Simonson

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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

NORTH SHELBY – The Briarwood Christian Lions continued their strong start to the season on both the boys and girls sides thanks to a pair of wins over one of the top teams in Class 7A.

No. 6 Briarwood took down 7A No. 6 Thompson 2-1 in the boys game on Tuesday, Feb. 18 at Lions Pride Stadium after the No. 5 Lady Lions breezed past the No. 10 Warriors 7-2 in the girls matchup.

In the boys game, Thomas Lanier was the hero for the home side as he had both goals in the 2-1 win.

After going over an hour without breaking through the Thompson defense. Brandon Newsome sent a pass Lanier’s way, and Briarwood finished the job to score a 63rd minute goal.

The Lions kept pressing the attack and were rewarded 12 minutes after their initial score. This time, Cameron Harrington’s chance found Lanier in the 75th minute to put Briarwood ahead with five minutes left.

The Warriors could only score once in the entire match and were unable to equalize in the final minutes, which sealed the 2-1 victory for the Lions on their home turf.

The girls game saw Briarwood put seven goals past Thompson in a commanding showing for the Lions’ veteran attack.

Taylor Leib got the offense going for the Lions early as she sent a chance over to Brooklyn Barnett, who finished off the goal to get the hosts on the board.

The pair of seniors traded roles on the second goal of the half as Barnett took care of the final pass to the goal-scoring Leib.

Both teams scored in the opening half of play, but in the end, Briarwood went into the break with a 2-1 lead.

That lead only grew in the second half as the Lions kept attacking the net, starting with their two Taylors.

Taylor Matthews got in on the goal-scoring action as Leib found her on a pass to score Briarwood’s third goal of the match. The Lions used that exact connection to fuel their next goal as well, giving Matthews her second goal of the game and Leib her third assist of the evening.

Leib secured a brace of her own shortly after as she scored an unassisted goal to give the Lions five goals and increase the lead against Thompson.

After that, Mallon Sigler became the fourth different goal scorer for the girls team on the night thanks to a goal she scored all by herself for the team’s sixth goal.

For its last trick, Briarwood went back to how the match started as Leib assisted on Barnett’s second goal of the night as they secured their third goal as a pairing against the Warriors.

Thompson could only offer up one goal in response as the Lions secured the five-goal win to bounce back from their last loss to Dothan 10 days ago.

In the end, four different Briarwood players earned braces as Lanier scored twice in the boys game while Leib, Matthews and Barnett did the same in the girls match. Leib paired her brace with four assists while Barnett added an assist as well thanks to the second goal.

The Lions boys improved to 5-3 with the victory. They will next play on the road at Homewood on Tuesday, Feb. 25 at 7:30 p.m. at Waldrop Stadium.

Briarwood’s girls took their record to 2-2 on the year. As for them, they will next play on the road at Vestavia Hills on Friday, Feb. 21 at 5 p.m.

Meanwhile, Thompson’s boys dropped to 4-2-1 while the girls fell to 3-1-1 with their first loss of the campaign. Both teams will be in action at Waldrop on Friday, Feb. 21 as the girls face Homewood at 5:30 p.m. before the boys are scheduled to take the pitch at 7 p.m.

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