Stratford punches ticket to semifinals with 4-0 home victory over Strong Rock

Kate Blankenship is always anxious and ready for her team to get on the pitch for competition.

This time that anxiety was raised, as was her level of anticipation. After all, she hadn’t coached her team in a game since April 29 because of an early end to the season and a playoff bye.

“I was curious how that might play,” Stratford’s veteran head girls soccer coach said, noting several of her players squeezed in a state track championship performance in the interim. “We were able to get in the flow of the game really quickly, and our possession was very good. That was something I was really happy to see.”

So much for the suspense and concerns about rust.

The Eagles took a little while for pressure to be converted to goals, but they scored twice in each half to take down Strong Rock 4-0 Thursday in a GIAA Class 4A second-round matchup.

Stratford improved to 15-1 in ending Strong Rock’s season at 12-6. Up next in Macon next Friday in the semifinals is the winner of this Friday’s Brookstone-King’s Academy matchup.

Eighth-grader Hadley Stewart led the way with two goals, with freshman Annie Garner and junior Campbell McIntyre rounding out the scoring.

“Hadley stepped up there, and finishing the two goals was great for her,” Blankenship said. “I thought across the board, we played well. We’re not depending on one player here or there, and I think that makes you a little harder to scout, makes it harder for teams to prepare for you.”

Tessa Morehead, bound for Penn State, stayed busy enough in the net to preserve Stratford’s third straight shutout and 11^th of the season.

That sure made the old Stratford and Alabama-Birmingham goalkeeper happy.

“I want to start with the zero, always,” Blankenship said with a laugh. “You can’t lose if it’s always a zero. That’s something in the back, we have worked really hard at being disciplined, and I’ve been really, really proud of our defending core unit.”

Strong Rock battled well early on, making Stratford work in the possession battle. The Patriots had the first real shot on goal but they didn’t get all that many, only taking seven shots overall.

The Eagles couldn’t do anything with several corner kicks, as freshman Lennon Pasch came up with some nice saves.

Finally, the time spent on Strong Rock’s half paid off when Garner drilled a shot from about 30 yards out, and it scooted through traffic and into the left side of the net, putting Stratford up with 15:10 left in the first half.

McIntyre set up for a free kick just about even with the edge of the circle in the middle of the field. It was more than on target, whizzing past Pasch for an eyebrow-raising goal a little more than seven minutes after Garner broke the shutout.

The physicality increased a little bit as the Patriots watched their season slowly dwindle away. They hung around, but still couldn’t manage too much to make Morehead stress out.

Stratford pretty much put it away when Hadley made Pasch pay for a missed gamble, coming out from the net but not making it to the ball in time, making for a somewhat easy goal with 15:14 left.

A Strong Rock yellow card followed less than a minute later.

The Eagle defense continued to keep the Patriots from mounting too many threats, and they added icing when Kelly Gray’s pass from the right corner was on target to Hadley, who sort of ball-faked an attempt, then spun and zipped it in.

Concerns of any rust from an extended spring break were long gone.

“That’s the great thing about this team,” Blankenship said. “The chemistry is what makes us good. We had good minutes from the bench, and that’s something that at this point of the season is a really big strength.”