Chelsea puts four goals past Spain Park to keep playoff chances alive
Published 4:27 pm Thursday, April 17, 2025
Parker Dean’s first-half hat trick helped Chelsea contribute four goals to its goal-differential tally with a win over Spain Park as the Hornets await news on their playoff fate. (Reporter Photos/Andrew Simonson)
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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor
HOOVER – The Chelsea Hornets entered Tuesday, April 15’s road game at the Spain Park Jaguars with one mission–keep their season alive.
After last-second heroics at Pelham on Thursday tied the Hornets and Panthers on head-to-head goal differential, Chelsea needed to overcome a six-goal difference in the goal differential. Thanks to AHSAA rules, they could only cut it by four on their own.
However, the Hornets stepped up and did everything that they could to improve their odds, defeating Spain Park by four goals in a 5-1 win at Spain Park High School to close out area play.
Chelsea will now wait on the result of Briarwood and Pelham’s game on Thursday, April 17 to learn its playoff fate. The Lions must beat the Panthers by three goals or more to put the Hornets in the playoffs.
Chelsea got off to a fast and furious start in the first minute as Max Wever sent a left-wing cross in to Parker Dean, who fired in the ball into the goal to open up a 1-0 lead.
However, that lead lasted just one minute as the Hornets committed a foul in the box to send the Jags to the spot for a penalty kick. Josh Tulloss calmly converted his attempt to knot the game up at 1-1.
Chelsea quickly recovered from the equalizer to retake the lead. Luke Miller played a ball to Wever, and he finished it off for his second goal contribution of the first four minutes and to put the Hornets up 2-1.
From there, Chelsea continued to press the attack as Wever’s seventh-minute shot missed ahead of a pair of offsides that ruled out two goals.
The Hornets tacked on a third in the 14th minute when Jacob Cano sent a long volley on over to Dean on the left wing. He connected with the ball in midair to fire it into the near side of the goal for the 3-1 lead.
Spain Park had one of its better chances of the half in the 26th minute when Andrew Purkey collected a dangerous through ball, and Jags keeper George Everly denied a goal with a diving save in the 30th minute.
Things got feisty in the 32nd minute when a Cooper Baumbaugh cross off a yellow-card free kick led to contact at the net and a scuffle between both teams. The Hornets got a yellow card of their own for the incident.
With less than two minutes remaining in the half, Dean finished off the first 40 minutes on a high note. He took a ball from Harper Jones and put it in the back of the net to seal the first-half hat trick and send Chelsea to the break with a 4-1 lead.
The Hornets quickly made the lead 5-1 in the 52nd minute when Baumbaugh turned his body in the box to fire the ball into the left corner of the goal. He went over to punch the corner flag like a boxer in celebration after giving Chelsea a fighting chance for the playoffs with the max four-goal total toward its goal differential.
The Hornets had some other key chances within the next 20 minutes, including a 60th minute cross that hit the crossbar, a 67th-minute ball that Baumbaugh just missed out on and a high shot from Wever in the 73rd minute.
While none of those went into the net, they helped Chelsea continue snowballing momentum and keep Spain Park off the scoreboard.
The Jags did have one final offering in the 79th minute when William Brown fired a shot from outside the box that went wide. He then received a yellow card for a separate incident in the 80th minute that allowed the Hornets to run out the clock and seal the 5-1 win.
Chelsea improved to 16-4 with the win and finished area play with a 3-3 record and an even goal differential. The Hornets will finish out the regular season with a Monday, April 21 home game against the Northridge Jaguars at 7 p.m.
Spain Park dropped to 4-14-2 overall and 0-6 in area play with its final game of the season coming Thursday, April 17 at 4:30 p.m. against the John Carroll Catholic Cavaliers at Spain Park High School.
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