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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

TUSCALOOSA – The Thompson Warriors are halfway home in area play and continued their strong start to the Class 7A, Area 5 slate with a pair of positive results against one of Class 7A’s newest sides.

Thompson’s girls defeated the Hillcrest Patriots of Tuscaloosa 10-0 on Friday, March 21 at Hillcrest High School ahead of a highly-defensive 3-0 win for the Warriors boys.

In the first game of the day, Thompson jumped ahead of the Hillcrest girls and took an early lead in the contest.

The Warriors continued building on their lead from there through consistent offensive pressure as they scored 10 goals over the course of the match.

With the Thompson defense holding strong with a clean sheet, that helped the visitors end the match before the 80-minute mark and earn their third-straight area win.

Luna Montiel-Duenas led the way for the Warriors as she finished with four goals and one assist. Her sister Dia Montiel-Duenas earned two goals and an assist while Charli Gantt contributed to six of the 10 goals with two goals and four assists.

Guilia Wekesa and Alaina Simpson rounded out the scoring with a goal apiece. Helena Adan finished the night with two assists while Lynsey Schlup and Mary Webb Mazingo earned the other two assists.

As for the boys, they had a tough time dealing with Hillcrest’s hard defense as the Patriots parked the bus to try and limit damage from inside and around the box.

The Warriors still succeeded despite the tight defending and scored the opening goal of the match after Hudson Aaron assisted his fellow junior Brandon Ramirez. That gave Thompson a 1-0 lead going into the halftime huddle.

From there, the Warriors continued to grow their lead as Dylan Ruiz helped double up the lead to 2-0 in the second half.

Colton Burnett finished off the scoring as the sophomore took advantage of a strong cross in and scored to secure the 3-0 victory.

Aram Arreola and Dylan Heurta each earned an assist during the second half as Thompson earned the shutout win to bounce back from a tough defeat to Prattville.

With the victory, the girls improved to 12-4-1 on the year, 3-0 in area play and No. 9 in the Class 7A girls soccer coaches poll while the boys are now 10-5-1 overall, 2-1 in the area and No. 6 in the 7A boys poll.

Both teams are off for spring break but they will return to action on Tuesday, April 1 when they host the Tuscaloosa County Wildcats at Warrior Stadium to start the final three area games of the season. The boys will begin at 5 p.m. before the girls game at 6:30 p.m.