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Through the heavy rain that fell, the Briarwood Christian Lions prevailed to shut out the Helena Huskies 8-0 on Friday, April 25 at Helena High School, advancing in the Class 6A state playoffs. (Reporter photos/Tyler Raley)

By TYLER RALEY | Staff Writer

HELENA – As the rain fell down heavily at Helena High School for the Class 6A state playoffs, there was no choice but for both Briarwood Christian and Helena to fight through and hope for goals to be put on the board.

For one team, that wish came true, and for the other,  it ended their season.

The Briarwood Christian Lions played aggressively through the soaking conditions to defeat the Helena Huskies 8-0 on Friday, April 25, recording a dominant win to move on to the second round of their postseason journey.

From the opening kick, the game turned into a feast for the Lions as they attacked intuitively, spending much of the entire game in their offensive third.

The goal-scoring started quickly in the sixth minute, as just across midfield, Madison Bell got a pass off towards the left side to Taylor Matthews, who took it just inside the numbers and inside the 18-yard box to score. 

The 1-0 scoreline proved fatal early for Helena, but Briarwood wanted to keep adding on. Just a few minutes later in the ninth minute, Taylor Leib continued her stellar season with a strike to put her Lions up 2-0, proving their ability to play tough in the rain.

Briarwood then went on a hiatus of production, but still held the advantage by a large margin in all facets of the game. However, in the 35th minute, Ellie Rushing took advantage of a mostly open field ahead of her, driving down the center of the pitch to score right before the half and putting things at 3-0 on the road.

The Lions came out of the half with a firm grip on the contest, but did not let up under any circumstances as the rain continued to fall.

In the 46th minute, Zoe Eighmy took a pass from Leib and capitalized on it to score just a few minutes removed from the break, quickly extending the lead to four goals.

Matthews later got back on the scoreboard in the 52nd minute after scoring the game’s opening goal, finding an assist from Brooklyn Barnett to make it a 5-0 game still with a boatload of time remaining.

The assist from Barnett was just one of many she recorded throughout the game, and she was back at it again in the 57th minute, finding Leib for her second goal of the game to push things to 6-0 as the game neared the home stretch.

Barnett and Leib connected once again just a couple of minutes later for another goal, earning Leib a hat trick to open up her playoff run.

Then, in the 63rd minute, Briarwood tied the knot with one more goal, but with the recent roles reversed. This time, Leib got her second assist of the game with a feed to Barnett, which ended in a goal and pushed the game to its eventual final score of 8-0.

Barnett and Leib combined for six assists on the night in their dominant performance, playing a big part in the team’s victory in the first round. Goalkeeper Cat Walker also recorded a solid clean sheet with four saves on the night.

For the Huskies, the loss ends their season with a final record of 14-8-2, getting back to the playoffs once again after a perfect area slate, but now turning their sights to the offseason.

For the Lions, the win carries them to the second round of the postseason, as they improve to 11-7. However, they will face their Class 6A, Area 8 foes in the second round in the Spain Park Jaguars, who they lost two twice previously this season. 

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