JV Girls Soccer vs. Cy Creek High School
Due to the cancellation of school this week, the girls played back-to-back nights this week. On Thursday Stratford traveled to Cy Creek to open District play. Despite the cold and longer-than-expected break between games, the girls didn't waste any time before they found the back of the net. Only 3 and a half minutes into the game Junior Bella Saavedra chased the ball down the sideline before she cut it back to the middle, where she found the feet of Freshman Emmie Muras. Muras then turned and laid the perfect through-ball behind the defenders to Sophomore Trysta Truong. Truong took two touches to set herself up so that she could pound the ball into the back of the net, making the score SHS 1 - CCHS 0. It only took about 7 minutes before SHS would strike again. Sophomore Sylvia Castaneda intercepted an attempted CCHS pass in the back. She found Saavedra down the right sideline. Saavedra pulled it back and found Castaneda again. She then found the feet of Sophomore Ella Bui, checking to her in the middle of the field. Bui turned and found Freshman Brooklyn Baber up top. Baber made a nice move to beat her defender and then put the ball in the net to make it SHS 2 - CCHS 0. Another 5 minutes of passing and moving would set the girls up to attack again, but the goalie would make the save. A missed kick on the goalie's punt would find the head of Baber, who was able to send it to Freshman Sofia Denson waiting up top. Denson would power her way through the defenders and then take a shot on goal. The goalie made another great save, but the ball ended up back at Denson's feet, where she was able to nicely place the ball in the back of the net, making it SHS 3 - CCHS 0. With about 16 minutes to go, the Spartans would get a free kick from about 50 yards out. Freshman Mia Leonoras took the kick and found Muras up top. Muras turned and laid the ball to Truong on the back side. Truong beat a defender, then laid the ball back inside to Muras, who took the perfect touch before firing the ball into the net to make it SHS 4 - CCHS 0. For the remainder of the half the Spartans played keep-away. There was lots of communication, movement and teamwork by the defense to secure a shut-out for the first half.
The second half was more possession-focused than scoring-focused. SHS held onto the ball most of the half. Freshmen Macy Sanchez, Sofia Aguilar, and Dalton Cashman worked with Junior Maddie Verrett on several occasions to try and score, but nothing would go in. At one point, Baber found Denson for another chance on goal, but the goalie made the save. Junior Julia Wolf came up with the ball in the back and played a through-ball to Truong, but the goalie came up with another save. Truong found Muras again to try and repeat their goal from the first half, but Muras's shot was saved by the goalie. With about 5 minutes left, Denson laid the ball back to Sophomore Amrylin Duhon, who found Freshman Blair Hunter up top. Hunter laid it back to Muras, who found Truong running onto goal. Truong crossed the ball back to Muras, who headed the ball on goal, but once again the goalie came up with another save resulting in a corner. With 3 minutes left, Truong played a quick corner to Hunter, who turned and found Muras in the middle. Muras made a great pass to Truong, who came in from the corner, allowing Truong to find the net for our final goal of the game. The final score was SHS 5 - CCHS 0.
JV Girls Soccer vs. Northbrook High School
The Spartans played game 2 of their back-to-back games on Friday night. This time the girls got to play at home. It was still cold out, but the girls were excited to play their first District game at home. The girls came out on fire. In the first minute of the game, Freshman Mia Leonaras won the ball in the back. She played it out wide to Freshman Annie Katterhenry, who laid it up top to Sophomore Trysta Truong. Truong found Junior Cate Shofner in the middle, who turned and found Freshman Brooklyn Baber. Baber found Freshman Sofia Denson, who sent the ball through to Junior Maddie Verrett. She took the ball to the end line and crossed it, but the goalie was able to intercept it. The goalie made a bad punt, so Truong stepped in and won the ball before she hammered the ball into the net to make the score SHS 1 - NHS 0. A minute later, we won the ball again. Verrett laid the ball out wide to Denson, who took it down the sideline. She eventually cut the ball back toward the middle, where she found Sophomore Ella Bui. Bui took a shot on goal, but it was deflected. The ball ended up at the feet of Baber. She tried to cut it back and take a shot, but couldn't find an opening, so she tapped it over to Truong, who shot it through the crowd to make the score SHS 2 - NHS 0. The girls spent the next 10 minutes working on maintaining control of the ball. Eventually Bui won the ball in the middle of the field before she found Baber up top. Baber battled through a defender before laying it through to Verrett. Verrett dribbled past her defender and beat the goalie in a one-on-one to score her first goal in her comeback from her ACL tear last season. SHS 3 - NHS 0. With about 17 and 1/2 minutes left, the Spartans went on the attack again. 4 or 5 of the girls took shots at goal, but they kept getting deflected. Eventually the ball went out for a corner. Bui took it and sent a nice ball into the box that hit off some players before it bounced out to the top of the box, where Truong was waiting to take a shot that Freshman Blair Hunter was able to help assure it went into the net. SHS 4 - NHS 0. Another 10 minutes of ball movement and possession work took place before the girls found the net again. The Spartans were called for a foul in the Raiders' box, so the goalie took the free kick. Muras won the ball, then proceeded to muscle her way through one defender and then beat another before she took a shot that found the net. SHS 5 - NHS 0. The girls had one minute where their passing wasn't as sharp and the Raiders took advantage and scored, making it SHS 5 - NHS 1. On the kickoff, we made a couple of passes before Muras took off dribbling through several defenders before she found Hunter out wide. Hunter crossed the ball into Sophomore Kaija Sola. Sola made a nice pass backwards to Freshman Macy Sanchez, who took a beautiful one-touch shot that sailed over the goalie's head to make it SHS 6 – NHS 1 right before half.
The second half started out with Northbrook getting the first chance on goal. Two minutes into the game, the Raiders found themselves with a free kick at the top of the box. Freshman Goalie Maryn Lee made a fantastic save that Sophomore Sylvia Castaneda followed and cleared out to keep them from scoring. A couple of minutes later, Verrett found Castaneda making a run down the line. Castaneda dribbled toward the goal and took a shot, but the goalie deflected it wide. The Raiders defender chased it down and cleared it out of their box, but it ended up at the feet of Freshman Annie Katterhenry. Katterhenry laid the ball up to Truong, who found Bui in the middle. Bui turned and found Baber inside the box, and she took a nice first-touch to set herself up for a shot to the back post to make it SHS 7 - NHS 1. A few minutes later, Katterhenry set Truong up again for another great cross that found Denson on the backside of the goal waiting to put the ball in to make it SHS 8 - NHS 1. With 15 minutes left in the game, the Spartans got several corner kicks in a row. Eventually, Sanchez took a quick corner where she laid the ball to Sola, checking in. Sola made a nice turn where she found Muras in the middle of the box. She took a one-touch shot that found the back of the net to make the score SHS 9 - NHS 1, finalizing the run rule and allowing the game to end early.
Next Games: Wednesday, January 29th at Jersey Village at 5:30 pm and Saturday, February 1st at Cy Fair at 10:00 am.