Stratford vs. Klein – 12.30.22

Your Spartan Girls Soccer team squeezed one more pre-season scrimmage in on Friday, December 30th vs. Klein HS before the clock ticked down on the end of 2022. This looked to be the toughest game out of the previous three as the Lady Bearkats were #2 in the TASCO 2023 6A-Region 2 girls pre-season rankings.

Both teams filled up the stands and as soon as the ball was put in play, you could hear both sides fans loudly supporting their girls. There was a lot of strong play back and forth, and then a couple of minutes before halftime, at the 38-minute mark, the Spartans worked the ball up the field and Senior Elle Howell ended up with the ball, made a nice touch pass to Sophomore Ryann Weber  putting in her first minutes of the season on a rehabbed knee), who dribbled thru two defenders and took the goalie one on one, making sure to take her time, and fired left side to put Stratford up 1-0, and taking us to halftime with the lead.

At about 20 minutes into the second half, one of our mid-fielders gets fouled on the Bearkat end of the field, and off the free kick, we take the advantage and put one in the back of the net to go up 2-0, but get called for offsides, and the goal is waived off. About 6 minutes later, Klein has the ball on our end of the field near the goal and we foul their forward in the box, and they are awarded a penalty kick. Klein takes a hard shot on the right side to tie the game 1-1 with about 15 minutes to go.

That last 15 minutes would be the most contested we had seen in a long time. During that time period, there were 8 yellow cards issued (4 for each side) – neither team was going to back down, and each wanted the win as much as the other. Ultimately, the game stayed tied until the final whistle, and we ended up in a draw. The biggest takeaway from the end of this day, game, and calendar year is that the Spartans are never going to back down from a challenge.