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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

The Spain Park Jaguars entered the season with high expectations, and so far, they are living up to those with a 6-0 start and some hardware to go with it.

The Jags claimed the Lakeshore Division Gold Division title after winning three straight matches in the tournament, defeating James Clemens, Spanish Fort and Georgia’s White County.

Spain Park was firing on all cylinders on both sides of the ball, scoring 17 goals in their three matches and securing a clean sheet in each.

Tasked with starting out the tournament against the 7A James Clemens Jets on Thursday, Feb. 15, the Jags got right to work and took care of business in their opening match.

Just two days removed from a 10-0 win against McAdory, Spain Park’s offense fired three goals past the Jets backline to keep the scoring coming.

On the other end of the pitch, the Jags kept the scoreboard clean on defense to earn the 3-0 win.

The next day, Spain Park took on Spanish Fort in hopes of taking one step closer to a division title.

The Jags turned on the jets on offense and scored goal after goal on the Toros. In the end, they scored seven goals in a dominant performance on offense.

Beyond that, they didn’t allow a goal once again to secure the shutout victory by a score of 7-0.

That left Spain Park with just one match between it and a division championship: a showdown with White County out of Georgia on Saturday, Feb. 17.

The border war matchup proved to be no problem as the Jags replicated their offensive showing from the Spanish Fort match.

Spain Park scored seven goals in consecutive matches to up their total goals for the tournament to 17.

It also secured a clean sheet for the fourth straight match to end the tournament with no goals allowed and take the Gold Division championship.

The win takes the Jags to third place in the Class 7A coaches poll.

In the same division, Oak Mountain continued its strong start to the season with a third-place finish.

The Eagles got off to a strong start with a win at home against the Huntsville Panthers on Thursday, Feb. 15.

Oak Mountain took advantage of the week of rest to perform well on both ends of the pitch. It put four goals past the Huntsville defense and turned in a clean sheet to earn the 4-0 victory.

The next night, the scene shifted to the Eagle Sports Complex, but the result was the same as the Eagles took down the Homewood Patriots.

Oak Mountain only turned up the pressure on offense with three goals in the first half to secure an early 3-0 lead heading into the halftime break.

The Eagles replicated that in the second half with three more goals and did not surrender a goal for the third straight match.

That was good enough for a 6-0 win to keep them undefeated in the Lakeshore Shootout.

For their final match of the tournament on Saturday, Feb. 17, Oak Mountain battled James Clemens in its second 7A matchup of the week.

In the first half, the Eagles took control of the game with a goal before halftime to go up 1-0.

Oak Mountain stayed in front for much of the match, but its defense could not hold a fourth straight opponent scoreless.

The Jets put a goal past the Eagles backline to knot up the score at one goal apiece. Oak Mountain couldn’t answer before the final whistle and saw its five-game win streak end with a 1-1 draw.

While the win streak ended, the Eagles took home third place in the Gold Division as they extended their unbeaten streak to six straight matches.