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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

NORTH SHELBY – Just when it looked like a storm was brewing in the Briarwood Christian Lions’ attacking third after they scored the opening goal, a literal storm brewing over the horizon changed everything.

A 25-hour rain delay stunted Briarwood’s momentum it built just before the halftime break, but once the match resumed, the Lions were determined to not let the Northridge Jaguars back in the game.

In the end, a dominant defensive showing and a pair of goals from Taylor Leib made the difference as Briarwood beat Northridge 2-0 on Saturday, May 3 at Lions Pride Stadium to reach its third-straight Final Four.

“This was a goal for us at the beginning of season, and for a little while there, mid-season, it wasn’t looking like it was going to happen, and the girls have really come together and we’ve been playing our best soccer lately,” Briarwood coach Ryan Leib said.

After a scoreless opening half-hour, the Lions got their opportunity to break through when Northridge’s keeper charged and dove for a challenge inside the box in the 35th minute. She drew contact to force the official to call for a penalty.

Taylor Leib stepped up to the spot to take the kick, and as the Jags keeper moved right, the Clemson commit buried the ball in the left side of the net. That gave the Lions a 1-0 lead and a full head of momentum.

Briarwood used that goal to open up the attack over the next few minutes. Leib fired another shot from outside the box in the 37th minute that Northridge’s keeper caught. Ellie Rushing quickly followed that up with a lengthy run up the left wing, but she couldn’t find anyone to cross it to.

However, that momentum came to a crashing halt in the 39th minute when the official blew the whistle for a nearby lightning strike.

After the resumption of play the next night at 6:45 p.m., Northridge controlled the ball for most of the final two minutes of the half, but Briarwood had the best chance.

The Lions sent a rocket to the frame with 27 seconds left, but it blasted off the left post to leave the score at 1-0 before the shortened halftime.

Leib nearly got a big breakaway chance on the counterattack in the 48th minute, but she was fouled shortly after receiving the cross, resulting in a Northridge yellow card for denial of a goal-scoring opportunity.

Briarwood tried to get another counterattack chance going two minutes later, but like many of the chances by either team in the ensuing 15 minutes, they were countered by strong on-ball defense.

Briarwood then missed a shot just to the right side of the goal in the 68th minute, and the Lions built up for the second goal from there.

That culminated in a 77th-minute chance created by a deep counterattack ball to a sprinting Leib on the left side. She took the ball from about 40 yards out and took care of everything herself, firing a low shot across the net to score.

The goal put Briarwood up 2-0, and the hosts dominated possession the rest of the way to see out the win and a third-straight Final Four berth.

After the game, Leib said the delay presented a unique challenge for his players to keep their focus, but he was proud of them for seeing out the result.

“It’s such a mental battle, and coaching 17, 18 year old girls is a mental battle anyway, but when you have the schedule gets broken up and rain delays and all kinds of different things, we just talk about, ‘Hey, you got to control what you can control and this is what you got to do,’ and the girls have responded well by doing it,” Leib said.

The win is just part of a turnaround in the second half of the season that saw the Lions start putting the pieces together from their early struggles.

However, those days are in the past as Briarwood carries a six-match win streak into its Final Four matchup with the Spanish Fort Toros on Thursday, May 8 at 11:30 a.m. at John Hunt Park in Huntsville.

Leib hopes his team will keep that momentum and focus into their two final tests to pass to win a state title.

“You’ve got to play the next game in front of you and we got to prepare,” Leib said. “We’ll enjoy this one tonight and then prepare for Spanish Fort and then see what happens there and then we got to prepare for the next one hopefully.”