Stratford continues dominant unbeaten season, trounces Tattnall 10-0

Another match, another restful afternoon for Maggie Jamison.

Yet again, the Stratford goalie didn’t have a whole lot to do, and after a little more than 48 minutes, she and her teammates had another mercy-rule shutout under their belts.

Stratford improved to 11-0 on Tuesday with its second 10-0 win over Tattnall, not needing the full 80 minutes to take care of business. The game ended with 11:55 left in the 20-minute second half.

And that kind of mental makeup — focused on taking care of business — is why veteran head coach Kate Blankenship leads an extraordinarily coachable team that returns most of its regulars.

“Every year, your dynamic changes,” said Blankenship, who had a quality college career at UAB. “You’re talking about 30 girls. From my perspective, I worry about chemistry, making sure that’s all kind of working, on and off the field.

“I didn’t have concerns about leadership, because this senior class is really, really good.”

So are the others.

Stratford has outscored opponents — including GHSA Class 5A Lee County, which the Eagles defeated twice by a cumulative score of 14-0 — by a margin of 93-3. The last team to score on the Eagles was Central Fellowship, which accumulated two-thirds of the goals against Stratford in an 11-2 loss on March 5.

Since then, it’s been shutout after shutout, now eight straight with five shortened games.

It’s not necessarily a surprise, but one can’t take much for granted on the high school level. Then again, Stratford’s soccer tradition is long and storied.

“I feel like we’ve been building for this for a few years,” Campbell McIntyre said. “It’s really coming to light right now.”

McIntyre is one of four seniors, to go along with five juniors, giving the Eagles — who went 15-2 last year — a mix of experience and youth.

Emma Lizotte and Maddie Biesterfeld entered Tuesday night with 36 points each, with four teammates at between 20 and 29 points. Seven players have at least five goals.

A testament to Stratford’s balance: Lizotte was shut out against the Trojans, but Biesterfield was one of four Eagles with two goals.

Logan Maxwell doubled her season assist total with two, and was joined by six teammates, yet only one came into the action in the top four in assists.

At this rate, Blankenship may have nobody to put up for region player of the year, but the Eagles could dominate overall postseason honors.

“Whew, that’s a tough one,” Blankenship said. “This group is really balanced. I was talking to someone today, and you know, our last game, we won 7-0 and we had seven different people score.”

She was jokingly hesitant to display her stats so as not to give anything away, but seven different scorers in a 7-0 game says enough.

“When you want to talk about one person being the team, this isn’t really that team,” Blankenship said. “We’re not relying on one player, we’re relying on the cohesion of 11 plus.

“I’m hoping I’m hard to scout.”

McIntyre said Stratford is playing like it should be, and while not perfect, has few weaknesses.

“I’d say like up top wide, or wide forwards,” she said of the strengths. “We’ve definitely improved this year, just kind of know what runs to make, where to run.

“Our speed up top is just phenomenal this year.”

And Blankenship can throw almost two dozen players onto the pitch and hardly flinch.

“This group has kind of shown themselves to be a really good mixture of kind of that fiery youth and great leadership with a high level of depth throughout the team,” the 2006 Stratford grad said. “From a depth perspective, I’ve never had this much depth.”

She’s not sure how many different starting lineups she’s used, and guessed only a few players haven’t started yet.

Despite gaining early control on Tuesday, Stratford kept going hard to eventually force the early finish.

“I just feel like our composure was here, and we knew what we needed to do,” McIntyre said. “Just attack wide and come in. I think our finishing was really good today compared to our first game (with Tattnall).”

It doesn’t leave Blankenship much to bark about — not that she doesn’t holler at her team anyway.

“She is always trying to make us better versions of ourselves, not only on the field, but just in general,” McIntyre said. “She says it’s a big component to just  always prove yourself and always just try to be the best version of yourself on the field and just take care of those around you.

“It’s pretty much the mental side of it she gets onto us about. And always make sure you can never get beat because of fitness.”

Ah, the team that outruns opponents but doesn’t like to run.

“Fitness started the first day, and it still does not stop,” McIntyre said with a chuckle of exasperation. “Trust me, those hills are killing us.”

Perhaps a little exaggeration?

“They were fit from the day that we started,” Blankenship said. “That’s a testament to what they put in prior to the season. That meant that immediately, we were working on soccer.”

The Eagles are a collection of Energizer Bunnies in soccer uniforms — they’re almost too zealous when it comes to practicing against one another.

“I have to reign them in a little bit. They want to go hard, they want to tackle, you know, for an hour and a half straight,” Blankenship said. “And I’m like, ‘Hey, look, that’s your teammate, too, right?’”

At least there are only the routine bruises so far of going hard in practice and on gameday. The sharpness in all phases is evident.

“Everybody’s doing what they should be doing,” McIntyre said. “Everybody fits the role they’re supposed to fit, and everybody is doing what they’re supposed to be doing to help us have such a great season.

“It’s just our discipline and trust in each other. It’s not necessarily something that we physically have, but just the connection we have with each other.”