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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

The Chelsea Hornets boys and girls soccer teams are trending upward to finish the season after earning a pair of important wins over the past week.

Chelsea’s varsity boys clinched a playoff spot with their 5-2 win on the road at Hewitt-Trussville on Friday, April 12 and honored their seniors on senior night with a 5-0 win against McAdory on Monday, April 15.

Meanwhile, the Hornets girls extended their win streak to three with a 1-0 win over Hewitt-Trussville to sweep the season series and also claimed a big win on senior night with a 7-0 victory over McAdory.

In the boys match against Hewitt-Trussville, Javier Rivera-Miranda followed on a Max Wever shot that was saved to score a tap-in goal and take a 1-0 lead.

Kaleb Bass then extended the lead to 2-0 after finishing a pass from Brandon Cruz after Cruz dribbed the ball up from midfield.

Cruz and Bass linked up again 10 minutes later after Cruz sent a pass to Bass who took a shot and got the deflection for the third goal.

Hewitt-Trussville got a goal back before halftime off a penalty kick, but Chelsea kept up the pressure and took the 3-1 lead to halftime.

The Huskies cut the deficit to just one shortly into the second half with a goal off a corner kick, making the score 3-2 and putting pressure on the Hornets to score a goal.

Chelsea got close on multiple occasions throughout the second half, but late in the match, Cruz found another chance to put the Hornets up.

Cruz played Rivera-Miranda to earn a goal and restore Chelsea’s two-goal lead.

Less than 10 minutes later, the Hornets put the icing on the cake after Wever scored a tap-in goal to secure the 5-2 win.

That gave Chelsea momentum going into senior night against McAdory.

The Hornets had multiple scoring opportunities throughout the first half, including a Luke Miller goal that was called back for an offside, but late in the half, Chelsea broke through.

Miller found Cruz with a pass and the senior put the ball in the back of the net to put the Hornets up 1-0.

That goal was the lone score of the first half as Chelsea went into the locker room with a 1-0 lead, but the lead quickly grew in the second half.

Wever scored off a header after Rivera-Miranda’s chip pass to make the lead 2-0, and then three minutes later, Rivera-Miranda came up with another assist after he found Bass who banked in his shot off the post for the third goal of the night.

Shortly afterwards, the Jackets committed a penalty to send the Hornets to the spot, and Nick Fogle converted on the attempt to put his team up 4-0.

Rivera-Miranda then finished off the 5-0 win by dribbling the ball up from midfield and finishing his own run for the goal.

Before each of those matches, Chelsea’s girls soccer teams came out victorious as well to keep their own strong recent form going.

After a 2-0 victory in their last match out against Tuscaloosa Academy on April 8, the Hornets hoped to make it two wins in a row and three matches unbeaten against Hewitt-Trussville.

Until that match, Chelsea’s lone area win was against the Huskies, but that all changed when it made the return trip to Hewitt-Trussville on April 12.

While not much separated the two teams on the score sheet, the Hornets scored the lone goal of the match and that was all that was needed to secure the win.

In the end, Chelsea walked away with the 1-0 victory behind a clean sheet on defense and the breakthrough goal.

The Hornets got on the scoreboard at a much more frequent pace in their match with McAdory on April 15 as they sent off their seniors with a bang on senior night.

Chelsea broke through the Jackets back line and scored not just once, but seven times throughout the match to establish a commanding lead.

In the process, the Hornets secured their third straight clean sheet by keeping McAdory out of the goal and earned the 7-0 senior night win.

Chelsea’s girls have a quick turnaround with their next match on Tuesday, April 16 at 4:30 p.m. at Pell City while the boys will travel to Stanhope Elmore on Friday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m.