Springville’s Rebecca Sierra-Burciaga is making a habit of showing off at the AHSAA State Soccer Championships tournament.

After scoring 4 goals and earning the tournament MVP award last year, this season in the title game the junior midfielder got things started early and then put it to bed late as the top-ranked Tigers surged to a 5-2 victory over No. 6 Gulf Shores in Friday’s Class 5A girls title rematch at Huntsville’s John Hunt Park.

“It feels really good,” said Sierra-Burciaga, who took MVP honors again. “Last year, we were the underdogs, but this year everybody wanted to come for revenge. A lot of people were saying it might have been a fluke last year but we came back stronger just to prove to ourselves that we’re at the top.”

Springville (23-1) has won consecutive championships – both coming against Gulf Shores – in only its 12th year as a program.

“It’s an incredible feeling and I’m so proud of them,” Springville coach Meg Childress Arney said. “It’s hard to win it once and even harder to win it back-to-back. We felt a little pressure but most of it was support from everybody in our community.”

Sierra-Burciaga scored the opening goal but the Tigers found themselves tied shortly thereafter following a self-inflicted, inadvertent goal for Gulf Shores (20-6-4) in the 12th minute of the first half.

Ansley Warner gave the Dolphins their only lead of the match at 2-1 moments later before Avery Daniel provided the equalizer in the final minutes of the first half off an assist from Madalyn Howard. Daniel had a goal in both the semifinal and title games.

The Tigers emerged with renewed purpose in the second half, shutting out Gulf Shores and surging ahead on a goal by Audrey Duckworth, who scored 2 goals in the 2023 championship match. Duckworth was assisted by Zoey Blaszezynski, who had two assists in the game and a goal in Springville’s semifinal win over Guntersville.

“Our defense was really stacked this year,” Sierra-Burciaga said. “They’ve all known each other the last few years and the only new girl, Avery Daniel, was really good and helped us a lot. Because it was state, I think it helped motivate us a little more.”

Sierra-Burciaga added 2 more goals in the final 10 minutes of the match to earn the hat trick and her second straight MVP award. She scored 5 goals in two games in this year’s tournament after her huge performance in last season’s win.

“Every time they score one on us, score two times,” she said. “If they score twice, go three. That’s always our motto.”