Stratford girls soccer defeat Mount de Sales 7-0 to reach semifinals

Not having played since April 28, Kate Blankenship knew her team may not start off all that sharp.

That it took almost 28 minutes for Stratford’s second goal might indicate some rust, but the Eagles also took plenty of shots at the net by then.

“We were creating chances,” the veteran Stratford girls soccer coach said. “We just had to kind of figure out a way to put that little final touch on it.”

As expected, they figured that out.

Anna Garner scored twice and five teammates scored to lead Stratford to a 7-0 win Thursday night over Mount de Sales in a GIAA Class 4A second-round game at the Hutchinson Soccer Complex.

The 18-0 Eagles now face either St. Anne-Pacelli or George Walton, who don’t play until Monday. Mount de Sales ended the season at 9-9.

It was the second 7-0 win for Stratford over Mount de Sales, to go with an 8-0 win.

But the Cavaliers were competitive for a chunk of the first half, at least on defense. They responded well after Maddie Biesterfeld zipped in a goal from the right side on Hadley Stewart’s assist just 10 minutes into play.

While Mount de Sales freshman keeper Emma Yann stayed busy, her counterpart in goal, Maggie Jamison, benefitted from Stratford’s control of possessions and kept the Cavs from getting almost any decent looks.

“I told them, ‘Look, when you can get three passes, you can settle in the play and then you can be able to possess the ball a little bit, (and) you can play with them,’” Mount de Sales head coach Kenny Epps said. “I think at times we did that. Too often, we were just a little timid.

“I think we were getting off the ball too quick and just weren’t trusting ourselves in our skills.”
Stratford will do that.

Campell McIntyre got the scoreboard moving again 18 minutes later with a goal amid a flurry in front of the net, Stella McIntyre with the assist.

The rare misplay by Mount de Sales goalkeeper Emma Yann — she deflected a shot like a volleyball set-up instead of catching it — led to Logan Maxwell’s goal inside the final three minutes of the half for a 3-0 lead at the break.

Epps went with a strategy change, having told his team pregame that the pressure was on the top team in the state.

“I told them at halftime, ‘Look, I have nothing to lose as the coach, let’s change our formation,’” he said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t get it back in the net, but we did create a couple opportunities with it.”

Stratford’s defense clamped down, though.

“As you get deeper into these playoffs, you’re going to have to be sharper defensively, and you can’t give up chances,” Blankenship said. “They had a few opportunities where they made us nervous.”

The Eagles pretty much put it away less than a minute into the second half on Stewart’s almost-sudden goal, with Biesterfeld’s assist.

The lead grew to 5-0 at the 28:50 mark of the second half on Garner’s long free kick. Emma Lizotte and Garner added goals three minutes apart with less than 15 minutes left.

Mount de Sales got a workhorse effort from freshman goalkeeper Yann. Sure, the state’s top team scored seven times, but Yann came up with — unofficially — 17 saves, often hitting the ground and occasionally doing so twice during a flurry of action in front of the net.

“Her goals against average didn’t get any help,” Epps said. “But she made a lot of saves. Her name will be spoken a lot over the next three years.”

Blankenship was impressed.

“Oh yeah, she worked,” Blankenship said. “She’s a talented keeper, and she’s young. I don’t look forward to playing her in the region for the next (three) years.”

But she was also happy with all those shots, direct and general shots at goal.

“We want to be able to score in different ways,” Blankenship said. “We have the ability to shoot from distance, so I want to make sure we keep that in our repertoire, as much as we would getting to the end line and crossing and finishing, and all those things.”