The Stratford Girls JV Team started off the new year on January 2, 2024 when they traveled to The Woodforest Bank Stadium for their pre-season game against The Woodlands High School. Just a few minutes into the game, WHS crossed to a girl wide open to put a score on the board. SHS 0 - WHS 1. About 10 minutes into the game, Trysta Truong beat a defender down the left side before she took a shot from 25 yards out that sailed just to the right of the goal post. With 21 minutes left in the half, the WHS center mid took a shot, but this one was scooped up by our goalkeeper Sophia Schulz. At the 19 minute mark, WHS took a corner kick that was cleared out by Morgan Long. A quick throw in from Long reached Maddie Verrett, who chased it down past the defenders, forcing their goalie to clear the ball out of bounds. A few minutes later, good ball movement from Lily Terveen to Long to Truong with an attempt at the goal was saved by their goal keeper. Then Ella Bui trapped the ball from the throw-out by the GK and passed to Long, who was stopped by the WHS defense. With 13 minutes left, another round of nice ball movement by Truong to Elizabeth Byrd to Long onto Verrett, but again the WHS goalie scooped it up. A drop ball to Byrd with a pass to Bella Saavedra, followed by a crossed ball resulted in another stop by the WHS goal keeper. At 8:42 left, the opponents sent a through-ball that sent Terveen on a foot race with their forward before clearing it. SHS pressed hard the last 3 minutes of the half. Camille Warren intercepted a pass from the WHS goalie and took a great shot that their goalie dove on. Then Kaija Sola had a ball laid back from Verrett that she cranked, but it went wide. At 2 minutes, SHS won the goal kick and Sola took a great shot, but the WHS goal keeper made another diving save for a corner. WHS regained possession on their half and made a nice through-ball, making it look like she would be 1 on 1 with our goal keeper Schulz, but Terveen chased her down long enough to slow her, which allowed Sylvia Castaneda to step in and clear the ball. The first half ended with the score SHS 0 - WHS 1.

WHS started off quickly. Just 40 seconds into the second half, WHS had a nice through-ball that our goal keeper Sarah Fadhli ran up and snagged. WHS passed around to a girl out wide who took a nice shot. Fadhli tried to make a play by batting it down, but they were standing on the goal line waiting to tap it in to make the score SHS 0 - WHS 2. A couple of minutes later, WHS intercepted the ball on the sideline and dribbled down, beating 3 defenders before shooting a rocket into the goal SHS 0 - WHS 3. With 18 minutes left, Truong and Warren disrupted the ball to make it bounce out to Sola, whose shot was saved by the WHS goalie. Terveen won the ball and laid it back to Claire Lamon, who sent a nice clearance to Sola, who played it through to Truong but was stopped by the WHS defense. At 11 minutes left, Terveen intercepted the ball at midfield and laid it to Long, who passed it to Nicole Abbey, who took it to the end line, but the other team made a great stop for a goal kick. Then WHS took the ball down the right side, had a nice cross, which went over everyone's heads, but they ran it down and took a great shot which hit the goal post. With only 9 minutes left, Julia Wolf cleared a ball to Truong to Bui in the middle, who played a nice through-ball to Abbey, but the WHS goalie came charging out and cleared it.

More great ball movement from Truong to Verrett to Bui to Byrd onto Abbey, but WHS was able to close in fast triple-teaming her to stop the ball. A beautiful free kick taken by Lamon played into the box with Abbey running onto it, but the ball hit it just wide. In the final 3 minutes, SHS got another great free kick into the box by Lamon, where Abbey laid the ball back to Bui, who took a good shot, but another great save by the WHS goalie. The last opportunity for SHS saw Bui switch the field to Long, who laid a through-ball to Abbey, but it was just out of her reach to go out of bounds as the buzzer went off. The game ended with SHS 0 - WHS 3 on the score board.

The Stratford JV Girls will have their next pre-season game against Kingwood at Kingwood High School on Tuesday, January 9.