The Stratford Boys Water Polo began the state playoffs with a bi-district match against Bridgeland the past Tuesday. After having to battle two top-ten ranked programs in our district getting to face off against some non-district competition was a welcome respite. The Spartans came out and struck quickly with Nathan Moss gathering up a loose ball on a rebound and sticking it into the back of the net 53 seconds into the game. The Spartans would soon strike again with Parker Kooyman scoring on a nice counter to go up 2-0, and then 28 seconds later, Luke Barber made a nice drive to score and put the Spartans up 3-0. 26 seconds after that, Nathan Moss scored on a nice assist from Kyle Brown and the Spartans were up 4-0 before the 1st period was even half over. Bridgeland would finally score when they got a man advantage due to a Spartan penalty, but the Spartans would answer on their next possession with Parker Kooyman adding his second goal and then 16 seconds later, Bryce Oliphant would join the scoring party to put the Spartans up 6-1. Bridgeland would score another goal, but the Spartans would answer on a Moss (Nathan) to Moss (Lowell) beautiful touch-shot goal, and Luke Barber would add his second goal on a 5M goal to close the 1st period at 8-2. The second period would see the Spartans extend their dominance with goals from Lowell Moss adding his second goal, Austin Chao getting his first and Luke (2) and Parker (1) also finding the net, resulting in a 13-3 halftime score. In the second half the Spartans were able to get contributions from their entire bench. Lowell Moss added his 3rd goal of the game and Austin Chao and Bryce Oliphant each picked up their second goals, while Marin Pavlin scored on a nice counter. Andy Zhuri continued his year-long excellence throughout the game with 6 great saves. The Spartans would wrap this one up cruising to a 17-7 victory.

In the second round, the Spartans luck of the draw was not so lucky as they had to square off against the #3 team in the State, Pearland Dawson. Dawson is a very physical team that came out aggressive early, but your mighty Spartans did not back down and they answered the challenge in what would be a dog fight throughout. Stratford got on the board first when Nathan Moss found the net less than 1 minute into the game. Dawson however would answer 34 seconds later to tie the game at 1 apiece. The Spartans would answer a minute later when Lowell Moss fed a great assist to Luke Barber, who stuck the ball in the net to give the Spartans a 2-1 lead. 2 possessions later Dawson would tie the game at 2 apiece on a nice counter goal in which the great Spartan goalie Andy Zhuri really had no chance. Unfortunately Dawson would then add 3 unanswered goals to take a 5-2 lead at the end of the 1st period. The Second period would see Dawson come out and add two goals in the first minute before the Spartans could get things going back in their favor. Luke Barber would find the back of the goal to cut the lead to 7-3, but Dawson then answered on their next possession. Fortunately the Spartans were able to answer again with Luke once more putting it in the goal at the 4:01 mark. However, Dawson would once again answer to push their lead back to 9-4. The Spartans then mustered some outstanding defense and Kyle Brown and Nathan Moss each scored goals to cut the Dawson lead to 9-6 with 35 seconds remaining in the half. Unfortunately, Dawson was able to score one final goal with :01 on the clock, which gave them a 10-6 lead at the halfway point. The third quarter would prove to be the undoing for the mighty Spartans as Dawson was able to keep up their scoring putting up 5 goals while the Spartans could only muster 1 goal by Bryce Oliphant. While the Spartans continued to play hard and outscored Dawson in the final period, it was not enough as they fell by a final score of 18-11.

The Spartans overcame quite a bit of adversity this year and really closed out the season with one of their best efforts of the year. Having the season moved from the Spring to the Fall as well as having to learn new systems with their new coach led the team to start off a little slower than they would have liked, but they rallied and really came together as a team to play at a pretty high level at the end of the season. Having squared off and held their own against some of the best teams in the state they can be very proud of how they finished the season. The Seniors have enjoyed a tremendous amount of success with two State Playoff runs and they still go out on a high note with their great effort against Dawson. The emergence of Nathan Moss and the return of Juniors Andy Zhuri and Luke Barber means the Spartans should once again be contenders next year for the District title and should have their sights squarely set on another playoff run.

Congrats Spartan Water Polo!