Homewood’s Maddie Massie scored four goals for the girls team and Cooper Gillis led the boys with a goal and an assist as the Patriots swept their way through the first round of the Class 6A playoffs in Thursday’s opening round matches at Homewood’s Waldrop Stadium.

“I have a great team by my side,” Massie said.

The top-ranked Homewood girls powered to a 10-0 victory over Shades Valley, that ended with 15:37 remaining in the second half after Massie scored for the fourth time. The Homewood boys blanked Pell City 6-0.

“Shades Valley is a much-improved team,” Homewood girls coach Shane McBride said. “We were expecting a tough game and they gave us a tough game. It doesn’t matter that we scored 10 goals, it was how hard we had to work for those 10 goals.”

Massie bookended the girls match with two goals in the first 15 minutes of the first half and the final two goals occurring within 13 minutes of one another.

“It’s a great feeling but definitely couldn’t have done it without my teammates,” Massie said. “It’s more a testament to them than to me.”

Massie’s goal in the 12th minute secured a hat trick for the senior and the final goal gave her 102 goals for her career.

“She’s the type of player you don’t coach, you just watch,” McBride said of her Furman University-bound standout. “She’s an old-fashioned player that loves the game. She’s one of those players that comes once every now and again.”

Between Massie’s goals, senior Sophie Lowery gave the Patriots a 3-0 lead in the 17th minute of the first half and a 7-0 lead in the third minute of the second half. Sophomore Annie McBride followed up Lowery’s goals in both the first and second half.

Sophomore Sara Elliot scored the final two goals of the first half to give the Patriots a 6-0 lead at the break.

Homewood (15-2-1) advances to face No. 5 Mountain Brook in the second round of the playoffs.

“We have something to defend,” McBride said. “We know that we have a target on our backs since we won the state championship last year and it’s only grown bigger with every game.”

In the boys match, Gideon Malone got things started for the Patriots with a goal in the first four minutes of the action, followed by Gillis’ goal midway through the half to give Homewood a 2-0 lead at halftime.

Gillis assisted Dean Armistead in the third minute of the second half for a 3-0 lead and William Jackson and William Lewis scored goals within 10 minutes of one another to push the score to 5-0 late in the match.

“Getting a relatively early goal helped us, but the first half was anything but easy or a walk in the park,” Homewood boys coach Julian Kersh said. “I loved the way my guys came out in the second half. Getting that third goal allowed us to relax. From there on, we cruised and made some changes.”

Carl Landgren entered the match late and scored the final goal in the final minute.

“They made it difficult for us so we got to give them a lot of credit,” Kersh said. “They’re a program on the up-and-up and we’re excited to be back in the playoffs. We knew it was going to be a battle.”

The fourth-ranked Patriots (20-4-1) will face No. 2 Mountain Brook in a battle of top-ranked teams in the second round of the playoffs.

AHSAA SOCCER PLAYOFFS

Thursday’s First-Round Results

CLASS 6A

GIRLS

Gadsden City (7-8-2) 3, Hartselle (9-6-0) 2

Mortimer Jordan (14-4-0) 13, Huffman (2-8-1) 0

Homewood (19-5-1) 10, Shades Valley (8-6-0) 0

Parker (4-2-1) at Mountain Brook (12-4-1)

Pike Road (9-4-1) 3, Wetumpka (9-7-3) 0

Montgomery Academy (13-2-1) 12, Stanhope Elmore (4-10-0) 0

Robertsdale at Saraland

Spanish Fort (20-1-2) 10, Theodore (1-9-0) 0

CLASS 6A

BOYS

Homewood (16-4-2) 6, Pell City (14-5-0) 0

Mountain Brook (17-2-4) 10, Parker (3-6) 0

Wetumpka (16-4-0) 4, Pike Road 2

Montgomery Academy (17-2-1) 4, Stanhope Elmore (6-8-6) 0

Murphy (3-5) at Spanish Fort (15-5-0)