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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

ALABASTER – The Westminster School at Oak Mountain Knights are heading back to their longtime home of the boys and girls soccer Final Four, but they had to wait just a little bit longer to punch their tickets.

Westminster’s boys team overcame a day-long rain delay to see out a 2-1 win over the Trinity Presbyterian Wildcats while the girls defeated the Montgomery Catholic Knights 2-1 on Saturday, May 3 at Veterans Park in Alabaster.

The boys, however, got their game started on Friday, May 2 at Westminster’s normal home field of Dunnavant Valley Fields.

After a couple of early chances for both teams, Jacob Dover found Charlie Krulak on a combination play, and Krulak found a slot to send home a shot for the opening goal just around the quarter-hour mark.

Sam Carter remained strong in goal to stop Trinity from scoring, although on one of those chances, he had help from the post.

That helped preserve the 1-0 lead until the halftime break, but that was when storms rolled in over the field and forced a postponement of the remainder of the match for the next night at Veterans Park.

After more weather pushed back the kickoff by 30 minutes, the Wildcats resumed their assault on the Knights goal in search of the tying goal.

However, Westminster overcame the pressure and countered on their end of the pitch.

Dover and Krulak connected once again as Dover beat a pair of defenders on the break before picking out Krulak with a pass, and Krulak took care of the rest for his second goal of the match.

Trinity went back to work on offense though and eventually built up a goal. The Wildcats scored in the 68th minute to cut the deficit to 2-1 with 12 minutes remaining.

However, Westminster saw out the victory thanks in part to the continued efforts of defenders like JD Barnes and Walter Moore. Knights goalkeeper Sam Carter finished the game with six saves as he helped push his team to the Class 4A semifinals.

As for the girls, they faced a difficult challenge in the form of the No. 2 team in all of Class 4A in the Montgomery Catholic Knights.

Westminster took the test in stride though as its young offense went to work early on to get on the scoreboard. The hosts scored twice in the opening half to put the momentum in their favor.

However, Westminster did concede once during the first half to leave its halftime lead at 2-1 and put the pressure on it to respond and not allow the tying goal.

Westminster stepped up to the defensive challenge as senior goalkeeper Lailie Parvin and her back line kept Catholic scoreless for the entire second half. That helped her team seal the 2-1 victory and book a spot in the Class 4A Final Four after missing out a year ago.

Both Westminster’s boys and girls will face the St. Luke’s Episcopal Wildcats in the Final Four on Wednesday, May 7 at John Hunt Park in Huntsville. The girls will face the No. 7 Wildcats at 5 p.m. before the boys play at 7 p.m.

Not only is the boys game a battle of the top two teams in Class 4A, it is a rematch of the Class 1A-3A boys state championship from 2024 that St. Luke’s won, meaning the Knights will seek revenge in addition to a spot in the state title game.