Chelsea’s historic season ends in Final Four loss to Spanish Fort
Published 11:14 am Friday, May 9, 2025
The Chelsea Hornets ended a historic season in the Final Four with a loss to Spanish Fort where chances didn’t bounce their way but they still showed the fight that powered their unlikely run to Huntsville. (Reporter Photos/Alec Etheredge)
By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor
HUNTSVILLE – Despite dominating the stat sheet and the run of play, the Chelsea Hornets saw their first Final Four trip since 2011 end early.
A pair of free kick goals lifted the Spanish Fort Toros to the come-from-behind 2-1 win on Thursday, May 8 at John Hunt Park in Huntsville.
“I told the guys, ‘This sport we love it and we hate it. It’s cruel and fantastic and awesome and awful all in the same,’ and we felt all of that,” Chelsea coach Lee Miller said. “We felt like neither foul was a foul on those two free kicks, but credit to that kid (Ethan Spuler) for hitting a couple of absolute stunners. We had chances to overcome everything, and we can look in the mirror and blame ourselves for not putting it in the back of the net. There were lots of good opportunities, and we just didn’t do it.”
Those two free kick goals were the Toros’ lone shots on goal of the game. The Hornets outshot Spanish Fort 16-3 after relentlessly pressing the attack and had a 5-2 advantage in shots on goal.
Those missed chances ended up playing a big role in the defeat that capped an unlikely run to Huntsville.
Chelsea started its strong offensive day early by scoring the opening goal before the 10-minute mark. In the seventh minute, the Hornets went on the break and passed the ball to a crashing in Luke Miller. He fired the ball in the goal and ran over to the touchline to celebrate the 1-0 with his teammates.
Daniel Teixeira had a free kick that was caught in the 13th minute before Jacob Cano got a pair of chances, first off a 21st-minute ball from Marcus Garcia and then off a free kick in the 25th minute that spilled out to him for a close-range shot.
Miller nearly had a second in the 27th minute when a strong gust almost blew in his corner kick for an Olimpico goal, but the keeper saved it.
The Hornets then finished the half with a pair of missed chances off corner kicks, but a last-second set piece from Spanish Fort changed everything about the game.
After a foul call atop the box, Spuler fired a direct kick over the wall and banged it in off the crossbar to tie the game at 1-1 going into halftime.
The set piece chances resumed for Chelsea in the 47th minute with a pair of Miller corner kicks, but the big chance came second later on a Max Wever breakaway that just missed the frame.
Parker Dean then got in on the action on offense, missing a shot to the left of goal in the 51st minute before a breakaway chance in the 58th minute was cleared.
The Toros had a go-ahead goal ruled offside just before the hour-mark, but they got their chance mere minutes later off another free kick.
In the 66th minute, Spuler stepped up to the mark and curled a shot into the top left corner of the goal, repeating his free kick success and taking a 2-1 lead.
Chelsea went back on the attack with 14 minutes left, but none of the shots could quite find the final touch required to score.
Dean missed a shot in the 67th minute after a lengthy free kick sequence.
The Hornets also had a ball in the box late in the game, but despite getting pulled down to the ground, no penalty kick was given.
Another similarly tough challenge came in the 74th minute when Wever lost a battle for a cross with the keeper in the 74th minute.
The Hornets got one last chance with a 79th minute corner, but after opting to take it short, the cross narrowly missed Miller’s head.
That sealed the 2-1 win for Spanish Fort as it advanced to play Southside-Gadsden in the finals and Chelsea’s season ended.
After the game, coach Miller was at a loss for words at what they specifically could have changed to get one of the flurry of shots to go in the back of the net.
“I don’t know. If I had that, I wish I could wave the magic wand and know,” coach Miller said. “But soccer’s this way. On a different day, we put a few in and we win that game. And today we didn’t, and that’s the cruelty of the whole thing is you never know what you’re going to get.
Despite the loss, the Hornets made history with their first Final Four appearance in 14 years and their second-straight 20-win season. Coach Miller was proud of his senior class for raising the standard of Chelsea soccer back to where it used to be.
“They’ve leveled up for us,” coach Miller said. “They’ve got to be the winningest class in school history with the back-to-back 20-win seasons. Super proud of them, and I thought they deserved a better end. But it was still a fantastic run and really appreciate those guys.
Chelsea took an unlikely journey to Huntsville, avoiding a goal-differential tiebreak loss to Pelham by scoring against the Panthers with six seconds remaining before both teams’ final results went the Hornets’ way.
From there, after a dominant win over Helena in the first round, Chelsea had to battle back again with two Luke Miller penalty kick goals against Briarwood to force a penalty shootout. That paved the way for a win over the Lions and a quarterfinal victory over Calera.
Now, Miller plans to ride a wave of continuity into next season as the Hornets aim to make the wait for their next Final Four trip much shorter.
“We’ve got a good group coming back. We feel like we can get back again,” coach Miller said. “Obviously, getting out of our group was a challenge enough, and, we’ll have to do that again next year to get back here. But we got a taste of it and now we’ve got nothing to do but work on it and try to find our way back next season.”
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