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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

CHELSEA – The Chelsea Hornets finished out the 2025 regular season on a high note as their boys and girls soccer teams secured big wins over the Northridge Jaguars.

Chelsea’s girls defeated Northridge 1-0 on Monday, April 21 at Chelsea High School ahead of a 6-1 win for the boys over the Jags.

The victory for the girls took on a different meaning as, while the boys will advance to the Class 6A playoffs, their season ended on Monday night.

Ava Lovingood helped make sure Chelsea capped off the year on the right note as she took a ball from Gabi Guillen to find the back of the net. That shot broke the deadlock and gave the Hornets a 1-0 lead.

From there, the Hornets saw out the shutout win as they needed just one goal to back up Payton Walker and Addison Nemeth’s dual clean sheet in the net.

As for the boys, they got much more offense as they raced against the clock to finish the match before an incoming thunderstorm.

Cooper Baumbaugh helped Chelsea open up the scoring as he played Max Wever with a through ball, and Wever finished it off for the first goal of the game.

The Hornets tried to add another goal before the break, but they hit the post or crossbar four separate times in the remainder of the half, including two shots from Luke Miller, one from Wever and another from Elijah Huggins.

Andrew Purkey came up with a crucial save in the final minutes of the half to help Chelsea take a 1-0 lead into the halftime huddle.

The Hornets quickly doubled up their lead in the second half when Baumbaugh found Wever once again, except this time Wever played Parker Dean in a perfect position to capitalize off an empty net.

Dean and Wever linked up once again for the third and fourth goals. The third goal came from Dean earning the assist on Wever’s goal after an initial ball from Marcus Garcia, but the fourth came off Dean’s foot and Wever’s assist for the 4-0 lead.

Campbell Jenkins then generated some offense as he flicked a ball over to Daniel Teixeira, who fired a shot into the back of the net to put his team up 5-0.

Harper Jones then helped Chelsea earn its fifth goal of the half after sending home a pass from Garrett McLevaine to make it a 6-0 game.

Northridge scored afterwards to get on the board, but that would be its lone goal of the game as the Hornets saw out the 6-1 victory.

In all, Dean and Wever finished with two goals and two assists to lead the way for the offense alongside Jones and Teixeira’s goals. McLevaine, Jenkins and Baumbaugh also finished with an assist apiece in the win.

Chelsea’s boys ended the regular season with a 17-4 record and as the No. 6 team in Class 6A. The Hornets will hit the road to the Helena Huskies on Friday, April 25 at 7 p.m. at Helena High School for the first round of the Class 6A playoffs after advancing on area goal differential.

As for the girls, they finished the year 10-5-6 after just missing out on the playoffs on head-to-head goal differential with Briarwood as they made progress from their struggles in Class 7A in 2023 and 2024.