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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

NORTH SHELBY – Coming in hot off a 2-0 shutout win over local rival Spain Park, the Briarwood Christian Lions came into their three-game homestand at Briarwood Christian School looking to improve on their already impressive start to the year.

Entering their game against the Sparkman Senators with a 4-2 record, the Lions hoped to gain momentum ahead of area play as they embarked on a week full of crucial home matches.

Briarwood defeated both Sparkman and the John Carroll Catholic Cavaliers to earn another pair of wins and improve to 6-2 on the year.

The Lions used the clean sheet from their most recent match against the Jags to control the flow of play against the Senators. Briarwood didn’t allow a single goal across the 80 minutes of play and set up its offense to capitalize on the other end of the field.

The offense did just that by firing three goals past Sparkman to build out a commanding lead.

In the end, the Lions walked away from their match on Friday, Feb. 24 with a 3-0 win.

That set up Briarwood to claim the No. 4 ranking in the Class 6A coaches poll and for another massive result against John Carroll three days later on Monday, Feb. 27.

Just like in the Sparkman match and in many others prior, the Lions defense played a key factor in the victory.

Briarwood’s back line held firm and didn’t allow a single goal to enter the back of the net for the third straight match.

The Lions took advantage by scoring two goals in the first half to enter halftime with a 2-0 lead which set the tone for the rest of the match.

Briarwood never let up in the second half and not only matched its first half goal total but exceeded it.

In the final 40 minutes, the Lions fired three more goals past the John Carroll keeper to continue their dominance.

That put the finishing touches on a massive 5-0 win for Briarwood over the Class 5A No. 1 Cavaliers.

The shutout is the Lions’ third straight clean sheet and the fifth in the last six matches. The only goal that Briarwood has allowed in the past six matches was against Class 7A No. 1 Oak Mountain in a 1-0 loss.

The Lions will hope to continue that lights out defensive form with their final match of the homestand against the No. 2 team in Class 6A: the Mountain Brook Spartans on Friday, Mar. 1 at 7:30 p.m.