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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

CALERA – The Oak Mountain Eagles added a trophy to their already stuffed shelf as they took first place in the highest division of the Lakeshore Shootout.

Oak Mountain’s 2-0-1 record put the Eagles atop the Gold Division at the Eagle Sports Complex in Calera. The Eagles earned a 1-1 draw against the Chelsea Hornets on Friday, Feb. 21 before beating the Prattville Lions 9-0 and Spain Park Jaguars 3-0 on Saturday, Feb. 22.

Spain Park and Chelsea also secured some strong results throughout the weekend as the Jags placed third with a 2-1 record while the Hornets came in fifth with two draws and a loss.

Oak Mountain was the lone team in the division to finish the three-game slate without a loss.

In the first game of the tournament between the Eagles and Chelsea, Oak Mountain got on the scoreboard after Lauren Prier found Maryt Hartsock with a chance, and she converted it to put the Eagles on the board.

However, the Eagles couldn’t get past Chelsea’s strong defense the rest of the time. The Hornets put a goal in the back of the net and secured the 1-1 draw.

The next day, Oak Mountain got a much stronger result against the struggling Prattville Lions.

The Eagles offense racked up nine goals throughout the match to continue putting distance between itself and its opposition.

On the other end of the pitch, Oak Mountain secured a clean sheet to earn an emphatic 9-0 victory.

Seven different goalscorers were responsible for the nine goals, including two goals each from Marley Brown and Elle Cherry. Lauren Prier, Aaron Pretnar, Kati Anne Shepherd, Madi Dunnaway and Faith Harrell also secured goals in the win.

In addition to her goal, Shepherd racked up four assists as she helped facilitate the offense in the commanding result.

Later in the day, the Eagles took on Spain Park in a high-profile showdown of former area foes.

Oak Mountain got on the board off a miscue from the Jags as they deflected Dunnaway’s corner into their own net. From there, the Eagles scored their own goal off a Dunnaway corner kick, this time thanks to a header from Harrell.

Shepherd finished off the result with a goal to take the 3-0 victory.

Before the loss to Oak Mountain, Spain Park was well-positioned thanks to two wins to start the tournament.

The Jags kicked off the tournament on Friday with a matchup against former area opponent Hewitt-Trussville, and they took control of the game early on with a strong offensive effort.

Spain Park scored the opening goal of the match as it got on the board first. From there, the Jags doubled up on their advantage before the break and didn’t allow a single goal in response. As a result, they went into the halftime locker room with a 2-0 lead.

That proved to be all that Spain Park needed to secure the result as while the Jags didn’t score the rest of the way, they secured the clean sheet to earn the two-goal win.

The victory set up a massive, high-profile showdown with cross-town rival Hoover in a battle of the unbeatens.

While the Class 7A state runners-up from a season ago gave Spain Park a run for its money, it was the Jags who struck first and took a 1-0 lead to take control of the matchup.

From there, Spain Park continued its stellar defensive record to earn its fifth-straight shutout and the 1-0 win.

The Jags couldn’t repeat their success in their final game of the tournament against Oak Mountain, conceding their first three goals of the season to the No. 2 team in Class 7A en route to their lone loss of the year to this point.

Before drawing with the Eagles in their second match of the tournament, the Chelsea Hornets took on a tough test in the Hoover Bucs and lost to start the tournament on Friday, Feb. 21.

Chelsea got a positive during the match as it put a goal past the Hoover defense to get on the scoreboard. However, the Bucs managed to score three goals throughout the match to take the lead and hold on to it until the end of the match.

In the end, Hoover walked away with the 3-1 victory to start Gold Division play, but the Hornets bounced back the next game with a 1-1 draw against Oak Mountain.

From there, Chelsea proceeded to earn another draw against a former area opponent from its time in Class 7A in the Hewitt-Trussville Huskies.

The Hornets got a strong performance from their offense as they scored a pair of goals on Hewitt-Trussville’s defense.

However, the Huskies put a pair of shots into Chelsea’s net to eventually leave the score tied at the end of 70 minutes and send both teams heading north from Calera with a draw.

After the tournament, Oak Mountain is now 7-0-1, Spain Park is 5-1 and Chelsea is 3-2-3.

The No. 2 Eagles will finish out their tournament slate with the Wiregrass Cup. They will face Enterprise on Thursday, Feb. 27 at 5 p.m., Central-Phenix City on Friday, Feb. 28 at 5 p.m. and Dothan on Saturday, March 1 at Noon.

The Jags are now No. 2 in Class 6A and will start out area play on the road at the Briarwood Christian Lions on Thursday, Feb. 27 at 6 p.m. at Lions Pride Stadium.

The No. 7 Hornets will hit the road to Springville to face the Tigers on Tuesday, Feb. 25 at 5 p.m.

Also in the Lakeshore Shootout Silver Division, Calera earned fifth place with a 1-1 record while Westminster OM came in sixth with a 0-2-1 mark and Pelham went 0-3.

The Eagles started the tournament with a 2-1 win over Decatur before losing 6-2 to division champion Pell City. Calera did not play Northridge as scheduled to end the tournament.

The Knights fell 6-0 to Northridge in their first game but proceeded to draw John Carroll Catholic 2-2. Westminster then lost 4-1 to Decatur to finish play.

Pelham lost 2-1 to Pell City, 3-1 to Decatur and 4-0 to John Carroll in a trio of games played at Pelham High School.