Stratford girls reach state championship with thrilling overtime win

Coming into Stratford’s state semifinal matchup against St. Anne-Pacelli, Eagles head coach Kate Blankenship was expecting a marathon.

The Eagles had the No. 1 seed and a perfect record, but St. Anne-Pacelli came in as a formidable foe with a great resume. Blankenship said she focused on fitness and prep entering the contest, knowing it would be a tight affair.

It’s likely that nothing — short of perhaps an actual marathon — could have prepared her and her players for Thursday’s showdown in Macon.

Blankenship was still catching her breath well after the horn sounded on Stratford’s 3-2 victory over the Vikings, which required two overtimes and hinged on an incredible late goal from eighth grader Maddie Biesterfeld.

The win sent Stratford to the GIAA Class 4A State Championship game in thrilling fashion and kept their perfect season intact, as the Eagles improved to 19-0 after the lengthy tangle with the Vikings. Several players were cramping up by the end of the game after both squads poured everything they had into the double-overtime showdown, but Biesterfeld called game with her late score.

While the prior four goals by the two teams were from relatively close range, Biesterfeld’s game-winner for Stratford was a looping, rainbow effort from long distance that gave the Eagles the lead with only three minutes left and sent the home crowd at Spencer Hays Field into hysterics.

“Maddie’s a great player,” Blankenship said of her youthful star forward, who also scored Stratford’s first goal early in the second half. “I think that we had depth tonight on the bench that helped us when you’re playing a level of a game like this. Maddie had guts all the way to the end. She’s got an unbelievable future.”

Biesterfeld’s stellar scoring performance in the second half was part of a surge for Stratford after it entered halftime down 2-0.

The Eagles had chances in the first half — though perhaps not as many as they typically get — but could not convert. The Vikings’ goals came off a free kick that curled in and a pinballing effort that took three different players before finally finding the net. Maggie Jameson had a solid game in goal for the Eagles aside from those two tricky breaks, but Stratford’s attack, typically a level-headed unit, needed to regroup.

“I think even in the beginning of the game we had our opportunities and they didn’t fall,” Blankenship said. “(Pacelli) scored two great goals. At halftime, we had a gut check. It’s a true testament to these girls and the grit that they have, that they went out and scrapped their way back into that game. I’m just so proud of them.”

The comeback began with a goal from Biesterfield about three minutes into the second half after a great cross from Hadley Stewart fell right into her lap in front of the goal. 

After that, the Eagles’ ferocious front that had them on the doorstep for most of the rest of the game. While St. Anne-Pacelli sometimes mounted a strong enough counterattack to get a shot on goal, the vast majority of the action went down on the opposite side of the field. Stewart did a great job controlling Stratford’s pace and creating opportunities in the final third, even if the chances did not always finish with goals.

The game-tying goal came from the foot of Stella McIntyre, who connected on a solid kick outside the box that skittered across the grass and just snuck past Vikings keeper Kaia Peters.

The rest of regulation brought one heart-pounding sequence after another, as the Eagles threatened to take the lead several times but could never quite punch it in. One overtime passed with similar results as the crowd, which included a sizable St. Anne-Pacelli contingent, got more and more restless.

When the second overtime began, the Vikings sent out a new goalkeeper. With only three minutes left before the game would have to go to penalty kicks, Biesterfeld sent a tough shot her way that arced just over her hands. Stratford held out the rest of the way for the exhilarating — and exhausting — win.

“I feel like I just watched an unbelievably talented girls on both sides of the ball until the final whistle. Hats off to Pacelli,” Blankenship. “We knew what kind of task it was gonna be and that it was gonna be 80+ today.”

The Eagles will face the winner of No. 2 FPD vs. No. 3 King’s Academy, which is set to begin at FPD at 6 p.m. in Macon, in the championship game. The GIAA Class 4A title tilt is scheduled for Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.

A win would give the Stratford girls their first trophy since 2013 and complete a perfect 20-0 season.