Stratford vs Pearland High School - 12.08.23

Your Lady Spartans will have a different look this season, as they lost twelve seniors from the class of 2023, which included five starters – four of which are continuing their careers at the collegiate level. With that said, the current team has several returners that plan on playing post-high school and five highly talented freshmen that will be battling for playing time with the upperclassmen.

The pre-season kicked off on Friday, December 8th, and after back-to-back deep runs in the 6A State Playoffs, your Varsity Girls Spartan Soccer Team started this season ranked 3rd in 6A-Region 3. They traveled to Pearland Stadium, aka “The Rig,” to open the year up on the road versus the #15 ranked Pearland High School Oilers.

As the Lady Spartans took the field, the crowd got to see the Varsity debut of Freshmen Audrey Brendel and Zoe Lawless, who look to be strong additions to the back line. Over the first 10 minutes there was a lot of movement up and down both ends of the field as both teams were settling into their first time back on the turf together. At 12’ and 13’, Junior Captain Mary Paul took two hard shots that were defended well by the PHS goalie. At 14’, Freshman Natalie Goodwin entered the game, and less than a minute later, the crowd saw Junior Allison Goodwin streak up the left side and make a nice touch pass to her sister Natalie, who took her first shot as a Spartan that was blocked out by the goalie, but earned a corner. At 21’, we saw another debut by Freshman Sophia Beviacqua, who showed she could move great with and without the ball. As the minutes were winding down in the first half, we saw a throw-in from the left side from Brendel toward the Oiler goal, where Sophomore Avery Rushing was able to make a pass up and over a defender to Beviacqua, who headed the ball over the outreached hand of the goalie and was cleaned up by Rushing - who hadn't given up on the play - to put the Spartans up 1-0 at the 30’ minute mark. It wasn’t long after that when Sophomore Hannah Haygood would clear a ball through midfield past the PHS center back and Rushing would outrun the whole defense, catching the goalie on her heels and put an easy one in the back of the net at 35’ to increase the lead to 2-0 and take the Spartans to halftime confident that they are still one of the best teams in the Region.

After Junior Goalkeeper Olivia Harbison had a clean sheet and an outstanding first half, Coach Walters sent Freshman Goalkeeper Addie Greenway onto the field in the second half to preserve the shutout. The Spartans continued to control the game the last 40 minutes, showing much better conditioning than their opponents, which included several shot attempts by Paul and A. Goodwin – but none could find the back of the net. We also saw great play by Greenway, who made great stops on the few attempts the Lady Oilers got off. We wouldn’t see a score change in the second half, but as each bench player was subbed into the game you could see that all of our players played great and responded well to each other – which ended in a well-deserved victory to get the 2023-2024 season off to a great start.

Your Varsity Girls Spartan Soccer Team will be back at home this Tuesday night against Cy Ranch (#18 6A Region 2) at 7:15 pm and then play at Tomball (#20 6A Region 2) on Friday at 7:15 pm. Come out and support the Lady Spartans as they attempt to add another couple to the win column.