vs. Westside

The Mighty Spartans started their week off on Wednesday with a matchup against their old District rival, theWestside Wolves, who are once again a top-ranked team in the area. This game started off as another defensive battle royale as both offenses struggled in the first quarter to get things going. The Spartans would eventually be the first team to score when Luke Barber rifled his second shot of the game into the back of the net off a nice assist from Devon Beals. Andy Zhuri would turn back 3 Westside shots in the quarter,  but the Wolves would get a nice goal in the upper corner to tie the score at 1-1 apiece after the first period.

In the second quarter, Westside would take the lead on another good shot from the outside that found the upper corner of the goal,  but the Spartans would answer with Luke Barber’s second goal of the game. Westside would answer with two point-blank counter goals as the Spartans were slow in getting back on D and the Wolves took a 4-2 lead. Fortunately, the Spartans would answer in dramatic fashion as Nathan Moss finessed a really great shot over the goalie as time expired to pull the Spartans within 1 and give them the momentum heading into halftime.

That momentum would continue into the third quarter as Devon Beals quickly tied the score when he rifled a shot home from 6 meters early in the third. Luke Barber and Nathan Moss would then score goals less than one minute apart, and the Spartans would hold Westside scoreless for the quarter thanks to Andy Zhuri’s 6 saves.

The 4th quarter would see the Spartans continue to dominate with two more goals from Luke Barber and 5 more saves from Zhuri as the Spartans ended up taking a hard fought 8-5 victory.

vs. George Ranch

The final game of the week would be on Friday as the Spartans took on the George Ranch Longhorns in another non-conference matchup. Stratford would get things rolling early in this one as Marin Pavlin came out firing shots and connected twice in less than a minute at the midpoint of the quarter to give the Spartans a 2-0 lead. Julian Hemmer would then join the scoring party with another nice goal, and Luke Barber would then get on the board with a nice backhand goal as the shot clock expired. The Longhorns would finally get on the board with :15 seconds left, but the Spartans would then answer with their own goal with :04 seconds remaining when Austin Chow fired one home to give the Spartans the 5-1 lead after the 1st period.

The Spartans would continue to exert their dominance from there as they cruised to a 9-2 halftime lead with Lucas Storey scoring the first goal and Julian Hemmer scoring successive goals before Luke Barber closed out the period with a goal with :05 remaining.

The second half would see Coach McCommons get to play all of the boys with lots of guys making big contributions to the team’s success. Ricky Conticello had two nice steals, as did Brock Hunter. Marin Pavlin topped off his best game of the season with two more goals in the 4th quarter to finish with 4 for the game, and Devon Beals, Luke Barber, and Nathan Moss also chipped in goals as the Spartans cruised to a 14–4 victory.

The Spartans now look ahead to the start of District play this week as they take on our red rivals from Memorial on Friday at the SBISD Natatorium. Please come out and support your mighty Spartans and help to take down the boys in red.