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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

The Westminster School at Oak Mountain Knights kept rolling on the road to the playoffs as the boys and girls each took big area wins over the American Christian Patriots before the boys toppled a top-10 6A side in the Calera Eagles.

Westminster OM emerged victorious on senior day with a 4-0 win over ACA ahead of a 4-2 win for the girls on Saturday, April 5 at Dunnavant Valley Fields while the Knights varsity boys team defeated Calera 3-2 on Monday, April 7 at Veterans Park in Alabaster.

First, Westminster honored its six seniors with a special ceremony during the games against the Patriots: Aiden Gamble, Charlie Krulak, Walter Moore, Holden Smith and JD Barnes on the boys side and goalkeeper Lailie Parvin for the girls team.

It was also a big moment for Krulak as the reigning All-State Second Team selection made his season debut alongside eighth-grader Granger Smith after both missed the beginning of the year due to injury.

After the boys defeated ACA 3-0 on the road on Friday, Feb. 28, it took some time for them to break through the Patriots defense in the return fixture.

However, the Knights scored in the 33rd minute to take the lead for good as Owen Kelly sent the ball to Jacob Dover, who sent the ball into the upper-left corner of the goal with his left foot.

After going into the break with a 1-0 lead, Rocco Zaccagni gave the ball to Smith in the 53rd minute, and the eighth-grader fired a header into the net to double up the lead to 2-0.

In the 69th minute, Gamble found David Bean near the goal and generated a close-range score for the third goal of the game. Five minutes later, Gamble capped off his senior day in emphatic fashion as he rattled the net with a strong shot from 18 yards out to finish off the 4-0 win.

What’s more, Westminster’s defense kept the No. 8 team in Class 4A without a single shot as Moore, Barnes and Smith anchored down the backline for keeper Sam Carter, who earned his seventh clean sheet of the season.

As for the girls, they sought to turn around their lone area loss of the season to the No. 2 team in Class 4A.

Vale Richie helped Westminster open up the scoring early as the junior goalscoring threat scored around 10 minutes in for the 1-0 lead.

That was good enough for the halftime lead before sophomore Noa Duell tapped in a goal near the back post in the 60th minute, increasing the lead to 2-0.

However, that kicked off a frantic stretch that saw ACA score off a penalty kick before a breakaway goal in the 64th minute to tie the game up at 2-2. That tied score line didn’t last long as Story Kinsley found Richie for a goal in the 68th minute, giving Westminster a 3-2 lead.

The Knights then got their own penalty kick chance in the 77th minute when Richie was fouled in the box, and Mackenzie Varden converted the spot kick to seal the 4-2 win.

Two days later, the boys squared off against the No. 8 team in Class 6A in the Calera Eagles.

After wet field conditions at Dunnavant Valley led to a move to a neutral site at Veterans Park, Calera broke through for the opening goal as Matthew Doerfler scored in the 20th minute.

However, the Knights responded less than two minutes later with Charlie Krulak’s first goal of the season as he capitalized on a rebound off a hard shot at the Eagles keeper, tying the game at 1-1.

Around the 27th minute, Gamble stepped up to take a corner kick from the right flag and bent the cross into the net for an Olimpico goal to take the 2-1 lead going into halftime.

Calera got a golden chance to equalize with a penalty kick chance around the 55th minute, and the Eagles converted to tie the game at 2-2.

Just like before though, Krulak had a quick response.

Just two minutes after the latest equalizer, Krulak sent a shot into the top shelf from outside the 18-yard box to score the go-ahead goal in the 3-2 victory.

Carter finished with nine saves on the 11 shots that he faced to secure the win in goal.

With the wins, Westminster OM’s boys team held on to the No. 1 spot in the Class 4A rankings and is now 11-5-1 on the year and 5-0 in area play. The girls are 5-8-1 overall, 4-1 in area play and No. 7 in the Class 4A girls soccer rankings.

Both will be in action in area play on Tuesday, April at on the road at the Tarrant Wildcats with the girls playing at 5:30 p.m. and the boys at 7 p.m.

Calera’s boys team dropped to 11-4-1 overall and will hit the road on Tuesday, April 8 at 7 p.m. to face the Mountain Brook Spartans.