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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

ALABASTER – The Thompson Warriors honored their senior class in a big way as they secured a pair of dominant shutouts against the Hillcrest Patriots to sweep the season series.

Thompson’s girls defeated Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa 10-0 on Thursday, April 3 before the boys earned a 7-0 win over the Patriots.

The girls remained undefeated in area play with the victory as they improved to 4-0 to maintain their top spot in Class 7A, Area 5. Their last game out was a 10-0 win on the road at Hillcrest, and they repeated the feat on their home field.

Dia Montiel-Duenas was in her goal-scoring bag throughout the match, scoring four goals to lead the Warriors offense on the day.

Jayna Chakua joined her with multiple goals on the day as she earned a brace with two goals, and four other goal scorers were part of the party as well. Luna Montiel-Duenas, Guilia Wekesa, Alaina Simpson and Carlie Mills earn scored a goal in the victory.

Wekesa and Nathalie Gonzalez each had a team-high three goals while Helena Adan secured two assists and Luna Montiel-Duenas and Charli Gantt each added an assist to their totals.

In the boys game, Thompson aimed to do one better than their last meeting against Hillcrest, a 3-0 win the last time out as the Patriots tried to park the bus to no avail.

The defensive tendencies continued in the first half of the game, but the Warriors still managed to get in the back of the net in the opening half. Hudson Aaron found freshman Dylan Huerta on the end of a ball, and he scored to take a 1-0 lead into the halftime huddle.

That huddle was where coach Alex Levinson and his technical staff began to change tactics to counter the defense. Those decisions paid off with six more goals in the final 20 minutes.

Shortly after the resumption of play, Huerta spotted Brandon Ramirez running in behind the defense and made the connection for a goal to double up the lead.

The goals kept coming after that as Brayden Herrera linked up with senior Yair Santana to set him up to score on his senior night for the 3-0 lead.

Erick Huerta then sent a ball over to Aram Arreola to help Thompson score once more, increasing the lead to 4-0.

Arreola struck again shortly after as he took advantage of a pass from Dylan Huerta to score his second-consecutive goal and make it a 5-0 game.

With the lead growing, the Warriors showed some love to their seniors by sticking some of their graduating players who play further back in the formation toward the top to try and get them a goal.

Senior Dylan Ruiz spotted Drew Toth making a run toward the back post and slotted in a pass to find him and create the sixth goal off the clever run.

Ruiz then found the back of the net for himself as he took a pass from Christian McLaughlin and scored to cap off the 7-0 victory, Thompson’s third in area play.

Arreola ended the game with two goals, Dylan Huerta finished with a goal and two assists and Ruiz earned a goal and an assist in the win.

Thompson’s girls improved to 13-4-1 overall and 4-0 in area play while the boys are 11-5-1 and 3-1 in area play. Both will be back in area action on Tuesday, April 8 at home against Prattville, with the girls looking to stay perfect at 5 p.m. before the boys aim to avenge their lone area loss at 7 p.m.