Stratford wins state title with 14-7 victory over Brookstone

Two days before the GIAA 4A State Championship game, each of the Stratford Eagles wrapped a piece of radiant blue electrical tape around their ring finger at the request of head coach Paul Carroll.

A strange concept — but an effective one, once Carroll laid out the vision behind it.

“I told ‘em, either you’re gonna take that tape off so you can put a ring on that finger, or you’re gonna take it off and feel sad you didn’t win the championship,” Carroll said.

After the final horn sounded Saturday night at Mercer’s Five Star Stadium, many Eagles players raised their hands, wiggling their ring fingers — still all taped up — with enthusiasm. 

It’s safe to say there was no sadness, as Stratford rode an incredible defense and clutch special teams to a 14-7 win over the Brookstone Cougars to secure the school’s first state title since 2004 in thrilling fashion.

The Eagles sacked Brookstone quarterback Broughton Branch five times on the night — four of the sacks were either entirely or partially tallied by star defender Maddox Whitehead — including on two of Brookstone’s last three plays of their final drive.

The Cougars were searching for a touchdown to tie Stratford because, with about five minutes left to play, the Eagles had blocked a Brookstone punt and recovered it inside the 5-yard line to set up the go-ahead touchdown.

“Didn’t I tell you it would be defense and special teams?” Carroll shouted to his team in the postgame huddle. “That’s exactly what happened … now we’ve got that ring.”

It’s the first state trophy for Carroll, who has been a head coach since 2018 but only became Stratford’s head coach last season.

“It’s unreal,” he said of the postgame feeling. “These kids have put so much work in, these coaches have put so much work in to get to this final game. To win this final game is unreal. Never felt any better.”

The Stratford offense, which came into the title game red-hot behind blossoming quarterback Tucker Johnston, sputtered a bit in the win but did enough to get the job done. 

Freshman running back Aaron Jefferson had the most explosive play of the night for the team early on when he took a 54-yard run to the doorstep of the end zone at the beginning of the second quarter.

“We really needed a big play, and for me to step in and do that for my team was a great feeling,” Jefferson said. “I was just thinking, ‘Don’t get caught.’ I tripped up, but I guess it was still a heck of a play.”

His teammate Ja’lon Smith punched it in from 1 yard out moments later to give Stratford a 6-0 lead after a missed PAT.

It looked like that lead would hold for a while thanks to the Eagles’ defense, which stifled the Cougars. Three of the team’s five sacks came in the first half, and Brookstone had a few chunk plays — many of them involved shifty receiver Jason Kelly reeling in passes from Branch — but could not piece together a drive for more than a few minutes.

Stratford’s 6-0 advantage evaporated after halftime, however. Brookstone slowly but surely moved down the field to open the third quarter, finishing an 80-yard, 11-play drive with a touchdown pass to Kelly to take a 7-6 lead.

The sequence, which included a key fourth down conversion after Stratford ran into Brookstone’s punter, chewed five minutes of clock. When the Eagles quickly punted the ball back to the Cougars, things looked shaky.

“We were struggling a little bit there for a while on offense,” Carroll said. “We’ve said it all year, it’s about defense and special teams. … Defensively, we were flying around.

“I told ‘em at half, we’ve got 24 minutes to win this game.”

The Eagles bounced back and began pressuring Brookstone’s offense again as the third quarter drew to a close. Though a Stratford field goal attempt was blocked at the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Eagles would get their own special teams play later on — one that would change the game.

“If I’m not mistaken, it was a freshman that made one big play blocking the punt,” Carroll said. “We’ve preached it all year long, and look what happens.”

That freshman was Morris Butler, who got a hand on a Brookstone punt after a bad snap to completely turn the game on its head with about five minutes remaining. Stratford’s Brady Flournoy recovered it to set the Eagles up inside the 5-yard line.

“I was just really hyped. I thought he was about to run off and take (the ball), but I luckily got up there and got a hand on it,” Butler said. “I really haven’t gotten too many plays this year, so it felt amazing to do that in the state championship.

“Before that, it felt kind of dead. I feel like it kind of spiked the team up.”

Jefferson lugged the ball across the goal line a few plays later, and Jett Johnston took a play-action reverse across the goal line on the two-point try to make it a clean 14-7 lead with five minutes left.

But things were far from over. Even after the Eagles held Brookstone on the next drive, some penalties and fruitless plays snuffed out Stratford’s next possession in its own territory. The Cougars got the ball back with about two minutes left right at midfield.

A late hit penalty initially looked disastrous for the Eagles, and Brookstone moved right to the border of the red zone at the 22-yard line.

It was then that Whitehead and the rest of the fierce Stratford pass rush struck again.

The group, led by Whitehead along with Brayden Hunley and William Stephens, sacked Branch twice with the game on the line for a total loss of 22 yards — forcing a desperation pass on fourth down that fell incomplete to seal the win.

“That’s what we’ve been working on throughout the whole week in practice. It all came together and everybody did their part they needed to do to make it happen,” Whitehead said. “From the first half when I had three (sacks), I just knew I was gonna keep going. I just had to keep going for my brothers.”

From there, the Eagles only needed to take a knee and drain the last 30 seconds of clock.

The celebration ensued soon after the buzzer, as Carroll was drenched in water as his players hoisted the trophy.

“Unreal,” Carroll kept repeating. “Unreal.”