The Andalusia 13U All-Star soccer team shutout every opponent they faced en route to the 2015 Alabama Parks and Recreation state championship Sunday in Dothan.

Andalusia earned a berth in the state tournament after winning the Eufaula regional tournament last weekend.

In the regional tournament, Andalusia topped Troy 6-0 and then beat Ozark for the region championship and trip to the state tournament.

“This has just been a great bunch of kids,” coach Allen Woodard said. “Two years, ago this group won the state championship and came up just short last year. It was just and outstanding run. It was very impressive that we didn’t give up a single goal. You have probably the best youth goalie in Franklin Osario, but our defense played so well at state that he really didn’t even get tested that much.”
Andalusia started the round-robin part of the tournament with a 9-0 win over Jasper and then beat Alexander City 1-0 to earn a spot in the championship game.

“The Alexander City team was probably the best team we faced in the tournament and Reece Burkhardt got the only goal of the game for us on a great kick. It was a just a tremendous game all the way around.”

In the championship game, Andalusia matched up with Dothan and things started off a little dicey for Andalusia, Woodard said.

“Right away against Dothan we gave up a hand ball in the penalty box, but I think they were a little intimidated by Osario and the shot just sailed right of the goal,” Woodard said. “He (Osario) had a great game and he came up with a couple of great saves in the championship game. James Posey also made a great save down close one-on-one and was able to clear the ball for us.”

Once Andalusia settled in, they started scoring and rolled off a 4-0 win against Dothan in the championship game. Burkhardt and West Parker each had two goals in the state championship victory.

Aside from Osario, Woodard said the rest of the Andalusia defense also played outstanding the entire tournament.

“Ashlyn Nall and Brenna Wells played outstanding on defense,” Woodard said. “They gave the other teams fits on defense. In co-ed soccer, a lot of teams try to attack the girls, but after a couple of times trying it against Nall and Wells they realized that wouldn’t work. Then they would try to attack somewhere else and we would shut them down again. It didn’t matter where they tried to move it on us, we were right there to stop them. This is just an awesome team and I can’t say enough about them.”

Woodard said another defensive standout for Andalusia was Dexter Lee.

“Dexter is just so fast I call him the master of time, space and dimension, everywhere the ball was, Dexter was there. Where ever they tried to move the ball we were going to hammer them.”

Over the course of regionals and the state tournament, the Andalusia All-Stars outscored their opponents 26-0 and Woodard said that with exception of a few defenders, most of the Andalusia players pitched in on the scoring efforts. Burkhardt was the leading scorer for Andalusia.

“It was so much fun to coach this kids and watch them win a state championship,” Woodard said. “I honestly can’t say enough good things about how great this kids are. Hopefully, next year we can make a run in 15U and ultimately these kids will go on to help out the high school team in a few years. They are just an outstanding group of kids.”