Varsity Boys Soccer competed last week in two matches. Cypress Creek on Tuesday at home and Northbrook away on Friday.

2/20: Cypress Creek Cougars

The Spartans hosted the Cougars at Tully Stadium, looking for another win in their drive to secure a play-off spot.

The opportunities came early for Stratford, with a free kick by Santi Chelala and shots by Everett Dwyer and Fabu Ndayishimiye.

In just the 4th minute of the game, Dwyer received the ball in the center, dribbled out right, and shot a bullet to the bottom left corner of the goal to open up scoring for the Spartans, 1-0!

Stratford continued to attack the goal throughout the half, with additional shots by Fabu, Dawson Burgett, Chelala, and Dwyer.

With 4 minutes remaining in the half, the Spartans mounted another attack. As Chelala pressured the Cougar midfielder on the left sideline trying to find his forwards, he passed back to a defender, who Hanno Waguespack challenged and won the ball. Hanno took the ball into the center and blasted a shot from 20 yards out, which curved into the top left of the goal, out of reach of the diving keeper, for another Spartan goal!

2-0

But the Spartans didn’t let up. As seconds ticked off the clock to close the half, Burgett received a Cy Creek goal kick around midfield and quickly passed up to Chelala, who dribbled past two defenders and fired a hard shot to the upper right side of the goal,  and the keeper had no chance. Goal Spartans!

3-0

Halftime

The Spartans came out with guns blazing again in the second half. Just 3 minutes into the second, Fabu took a shot from the left side of the field that was blocked out by a defender. Ollie Burdick controlled the ball, took a few touches to center the ball, and shot a high ball from 20 yards out, too high for the keeper and just under the crossbar! Another Spartan goal to go up 4-0!

Stratford offense was on point and they continued their aggressive attack on the goal with additional shots by Fabu, Dwyer, Burgett, and Kyle Castaneda.

Additionally, keeper Davis Cooper kept the Cougars off the board with three nice saves to seal the win.

4-0 Final

2/23: Northbrook Raiders

The Spartans looked to avenge their close loss to the Raiders just a few weeks ago. But the Raiders were not going to make it easy. On a quick counterattack in the first 10 minutes of play, the Raiders put one in the back of the net to open the scoring, 0-1.

It was a tough game with no clear possession winner, back-and-forth for most of the first half. About 30 minutes into the half, Stratford put together a good team play. Johnny Lumpkin found Chelala in the middle of the field, who dribbled past a defender and put the ball just behind the last line of defenders, where Dwyer had beaten all of them, and put a quick ground ball past the keeper and into the left side of the net, Goal Stratford 1-1!

The Spartans had another scoring chance a few minutes later, when Burgett put a ball behind the defenders on the right side and Dwyer blasted another ground shot, but this time going wide left.

Halftime 1-1

In the second half, the play continued to be hard-fought, with both teams trading attacks, shots, and free kicks. Keeper Davis contributed with a blocked-out corner kick.

In the 65th minute, Northbrook counter-attacked down the left sideline, passed the Stratford defenders, and shot the ball to the right side of the goal, which bounced off the post to the right side forward who tapped it in for the second Northbrook goal, 1-2.

With seven minutes remaining, Hanno got the ball near the left sideline, dribbled around his defender to the outside and into the box, but was fouled, drawing the penalty kick. Dwyer took the kick and solidly put the ball past the keeper to equalize at 2-2!

Knotted up with just a few minutes left, the Spartans frantically tried to get that last goal. But on a counter-attack, the Raiders got a long ball past our defense, and the forward shot a ground ball to the left side of goal, just out of reach for our keeper to go up 2-3.

Stratford tried to get a last shot, but just could not make it happen.

Final score, Northbrook 2-3.