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By TYLER RALEY | Staff Writer 

HOOVER – With an opportunity to remain at the top of the rankings in Class 6A and earn a spot in the postseason, the Spain Park Jaguars handled business and did just that on a chilly Tuesday night.

Spain Park defeated the Briarwood Christian Lions 5-3 on Tuesday, April 8, earning the Class 6A, Area 8 title and clinching a spot in the state playoffs.

Head coach Robert Starr’s squad already defeated Briarwood once this season, taking the first meeting 4-1 on Feb. 27. Looking to do the same in this one, the Jags came out hungry to make a statement.

Having the mindset, Spain Park did exactly that, and it did it quickly. 47 seconds into the match, Reese Oldfield drove down the left side of the field and from just inside the 18-yard box, struck it into the back of the net for a solid opening-minute goal. Just like that, it was a 1-0 game.

From then on, the tone was set that this game would be the Jags’ to control. They led the pace nearly the entire way through and continued to capitalize on goal-scoring opportunities.

Their next attack came just a little bit later on, as in the fifth minute of the game, Addison Soehn found her way onto the scoreboard as she too broke into the open field. Just like Oldfield, Soehn got around to the left side of the box and found an open shooting lane, scoring with ease to extend the score to 2-0.

Things continued to roll for Spain Park throughout the first half as the job was nowhere close to being done and the aggressiveness kept up. In the 17th minute, Priscilla Thornton got a shot off inside the box close to the net that was ultimately saved. However, that save deflected that ball back out and found the foot of Soehn, who put it home and made it 3-0.

Just five minutes later in the 22nd minute, the Jags were awarded a corner kick opportunity, giving them another chance to find the back of the net. With the kick coming from the right side, a cluster of both Spain Park and Briarwood players got a touch on the ball in the short box before Elizabeth Gray put it in the net for another goal making it 4-0 with just under 75 percent of the game left to play.

Just before the half however, the Lions got onto the board when Ellie Rushing scored through traffic to cut into the deficit, ultimately putting the score at 4-1 at the break.

Coming out of the half, Spain Park wanted to get that goal back and continue to put pressure on Briarwood. While it took a while to truly achieve that, the Jags made its presence felt with more challenges on the ball than in the first half.

In the 56th minute Oldfield got a clear lane to the net after a ball from Gray set her up for a shot, and with no goalie in front of her, put it in to extend the lead back out to four goals at 5-1.

Briarwood put up a fight in the later stages of the game, However, it was a little too late for it as the deficit loomed large over it from the opening kick.

In the 68th minute, Zoey Eighmy got the ball in the middle of the box and struck it in cleanly to make it a 5-2 game, and in the 76th minute, Taylor Leib sent a laser in from outside of the 18-yard box to put the eventual final score at 5-3.

With the win, the Jags improved their record to 13-2-1 overall and 5-0 in the area. The perfect area record clinched them a playoff spot in Class 6A and guaranteed a home game in round one, a big advantage to have in the postseason.

Spain Park now prepares to hit the road for a non-area game as it faces a Class 7A area champion in the Thompson Warriors. That game is set for Thursday, April 10 at Thompson High School, with kick-off set for 5:30 p.m.

As for the Lions, the loss drops them to 7-7 on the year and 2-3 in the area. They will look to bounce back after a week off on Tuesday, April 15 when they take on the John Carroll Catholic Cavaliers at 5:30 p.m. at John Carroll Catholic High School.