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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

NORTH SHELBY – The Briarwood Christian Lions took a high-profile result over the No. 2 team in Class 6A as they defeated the Chelsea Hornets on their home turf.

Briarwood took down Chelsea 6-2 on Friday, March 14 at Lions Pride Stadium, securing its second area win of the season over a top 10 opponent.

Those victories moved them into No. 4 in the Class 6A boys soccer coaches poll as the Lions continue to build momentum with big victories.

After a Sawyer Felton goal propelled them past Mountain Brook with a 1-0 win, Briarwood’s offense had much more success against the Hornets in the early minutes.

Thomas Lanier opened up the scoring with an unassisted goal in the 17th minute, and two minutes later, Sawyer Felton struck by himself to take the lead to 2-0 in a span of a few minutes.

Chelsea nearly broke through with a Max Wever header, but a crucial save kept the Lions’ lead intact through the halftime break.

The goals continued to flow in the second half. Ian Robertson found Jake Vandixhorn to create a strong chance that he converted for the third goal of the game.

From there, Felton made the lead 4-0 with his second goal of the match, this time off an assist from Carson Tucker in the 50th minute.

Roughly 10 minutes later, the Hornets got a response to put a number on the scoreboard. Parker Dean sent a pass in to Cooper Baumbaugh, who took advantage and sent the ball into the back of the net to make the deficit 4-1.

Chelsea kept the momentum going in the 71st minute with a goal from a man it had missed for much of the season. All-State defender Luke Miller made his season debut count as he stepped up for a free kick from 20 yards out and fired a laser into the top of the net.

That cut the gap to 4-2, but it wouldn’t last for long.

Briarwood responded immediately after the Miller goal as Fynn Eighmy found Cameron Harrington in the 72nd minute to restore the three-goal lead just mere seconds after they lost it.

Lanier put the finishing touches on the win with a 79th-minute goal courtesy of Tucker’s service as the Lions took a 6-2 victory.

Lanier and Felton each finished with two goals each while Tucker had two assists.

As for the girls, their game was much lower-scoring as the defenses dueled for much of the game.

However, that all changed in the dying minutes of the match. With 2:18 left and overtime lurking, Sydney Breedlove set up on a free kick looking to capitalize on the set piece opportunity.

She did just that, finding Gabi Guillen on the other end of the ball before the sophomore buried it to secure the game-winning goal in the 1-0 area victory.

Briarwood’s boys improved to 9-4 overall and 2-0 in area play with the win while Chelsea dropped to 10-2 overall and 1-1 in Area 8 as its eight-match win streak was snapped.

As for the girls, the No. 6 Hornets took their record to 6-3-4 overall and 1-1 in area play while the Lions fell to 4-5 for the year and 1-2 in Area 8.

Briarwood will be back in action on Tuesday, March 18 when the boys host Spain Park at 7:30 p.m. in area action while the girls head to the Montgomery YMCA for a neutral-site matchup with St. Paul’s Episcopal at 5 p.m.

Chelsea’s girls will host Grissom on Tuesday, March 18 at 7 p.m. while the boys will hit the road to face Huffman on Monday, March 17 at 5:30 p.m.