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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

TUSCALOOSA – The Westminster School at Oak Mountain Knights are heading back to the state playoffs as area champions, but this time in Class 4A as they proved more than capable of handling the jump in classification.

The girls clinched an area championship over American Christian with a 10-0 win over the Holt Ironmen on Monday, April 14 at the Holt High School football stadium while the boys capped a perfect 8-0 run through area play with an 8-0 victory.

After the boys won their first meeting on March 5 10-0, Westminster opted to field a lineup of mostly backups to give their players rest for the final two games of the season against Thompson and Altamont.

The Knights came into the game with the title wrapped up after securing an 11-1 win over the Tarrant Wildcats on April 8 and a 3-0 victory over the Fultondale Bobcats on April 11, moving to 7-0 in area play and mathematically eliminating the Bobcats from title contention.

As a result of having players like Aiden Gamble and Charlie Krulak limited to less than half an hour, many of Westminster’s younger players secured area play goals.

Max Holmes broke through for his first varsity goal as he scored the opening goal in the 21st minute, collecting a through ball while being hit from behind by a Holt player. However, that wasn’t the only thing he broke as he fractured his arm while going to ground, making his first goal a memorable one.

Ben Cobb added to the lead as the junior made it a 2-0 game before the floodgates started to open.

Junior Luke Likens and eighth grader Levi Self helped take the lead to 4-0 before Gamble added to his goal tally with his team’s fifth goal of the game. Senior defender Holden Smith scored not one, but two goals to add to the tally, and senior Ryan Dover finished off the 8-0 victory with his first goal of the season.

That win came after a second-straight mercy-rule win for the girls over Holt as they racked up 10 goals to end the match early.

Both Knights teams have won five-straight matches since the girls lost to undefeated Donoho on March 18 and the boys fell to undefeated Oak Mountain on April 1. The girls defeated Fultondale twice along with American Christian and Tarrant in area play since the last loss.

The boys improved to 14-5-1 overall and sit at No. 1 in the Class 4A coaches poll while the girls took their record to 8-8-1 overall and 7-1 in area play to go with their No. 8 ranking.

Westminster will hit the road to face a tough challenge in the Thompson Warriors for an in-school game on Wednesday, April 16. The boys will kick off at 1:30 p.m. while the girls are set for a 3:30 p.m. start at Warrior Stadium.