Stags improve to 3-0 in region with triumph

By Rob Gantt Special to the HSSR GOOSE CREEK - Stratford High School’s baseball team is battle-tested as the season heads into the home stretch. Second-year Knights coach Tony Osterman believes testing his team against some of the best squads in the state earlier this spring will benefit the Knights at the end of the campaign, which has arrived. Many teams Stratford encountered earlier were ranked in the preseason or are currently ranked in their respective classification. “We’ve got a chance to win the region and a chance to make a push for state,” Osterman said. “We’re still a young team. We kind of blend our sophomores and freshmen in with the juniors and seniors. The more they play in games like this (against tough opponents), I think they will only get better. I think we can be a team to be reckoned with once we get our pitching back.” Stratford won for the fifth time in six tries on March 26, beating Cane Bay 9-3 in the second game of their Region 6-5A series. It gave the Knights a series win to start region play. Stratford won the series opener March 25, coasting past the Cobras 11-0 in five innings. In game two of the series, leadoff hitter Jachin Davis collected two hits and three RBIs and earned the win on the mound. The Knights built up a 7-0 lead over Davis’ three innings. Catcher Braydon Burnett added two RBIs for Stratford. In game one, Stratford pitcher Jarrett Wagner struck out 11 batters and allowed just one hit over five innings. Davis, Wagner, and infielder Gavin Garcia each tallied two hits, with Davis knocking in three runs. “Our team has a lot of character,” Osterman said. “They are playing to win, not to lose. They’ve come together and play with a lot of effort. It’s a team effort.” In girls soccer, A.B. Kolesar scored twice, including the winner in overtime, and Kaelyn Sanders added another as Stratford’s girls celebrated a 3-2 win over crosstown rival Goose Creek March 28.  In boys soccer March 28, Stratford recorded its fourth straight shutout victory, blanking visiting crosstown rival Goose Creek 5-0 in a Region 6-5A match. Jackson McNeil tallied two goals for Stratford, while Vinny Teixeira, Nathan Arroyo and Maddox Levesque added one goal each.

By Rob Gantt Special to The HSSR GOOSE CREEK - Stratford’s boys soccer team has a great deal of experience on the pitch for the 2024 campaign. The Knights have 10 seniors and eight juniors, many of whom were on the previous two squads that shared region titles with Wando. They are taking dead aim at the outright region crown and more for this season. “A lot of these guys play on high-level club teams,” said Stratford coach Jessie Stament , the Knights’ leader since 2016-17. “They’ve been in our program for a year or two. They know what we’re capable of. It’s just a matter of them being a tight-knit group and keeping team cohesion. If we play our game for 80 minutes, we’re a very good team.” The returning crew is led by senior striker Jackson McNeil , the region’s player of the year last spring. Senior midfielders Vinny Teixeira and Nathan Arroyo and senior goalkeeper Enzo Mori are three more all-region selections coming back. Also, senior midfielder Terence Seals was the squad’s Golden Boot Award winner as a junior with 10 goals and three assists. McNeil found the back of the net a team-high 11 times as a junior. Teixeira dished out a team-high eight assists as a junior. “The biggest thing for our team is how we handle pressure and adversity if we are down or behind,” Stament said. “We have to have the belief we can come back and compete with anybody. We have to keep that mentality and control the things we can control.” Two more returning starters, senior Rodney Miller and junior Harold Carranza , distributed six assists each in 2023. Junior defenders Tyler Stament and Chris Diaz , along with sophomore midfielder Silas Miller, have starting experience, too. Sophomore Brandon Martinez and Rodney Miller booted in four goals last season. The Knights began the regular season Feb. 28 with a 1-0 win at Fort Dorchester , getting a goal from McNeil, and traveled to Lexington March 2, before hosting defending state champion Ashley Ridge March 5. In the 1-0 win over Lexington, Silas Miller recorded the lone goal for the Knights. “I feel really good about what our chances are (to compete for a region championship) and what our ceiling is,” Stament said. “We want to find our stride in these non-region games, find our rhythm and keep fine-tuning as we prepare for the region. We’re trying to tinker with things and see the best lineups and formations. Hopefully, we’ll get all that sorted out.”

Goose Creek – While they may not be favored to win the Class AAAAA state championship in November, the Stratford High boys and girls cross country teams are priming for a big finish to the 2023 season. Both teams will be strong contenders for the region 6-AAAAA championship, though perennial power Wando remains the team to beat. Coach Connor Roudabush has assembled strong squads and feels big things are in the offing. “Both teams are working extremely hard this season and have the talent to make it a season for the Stratford record books,” the coach reports. The boys team has three seniors among its top five runners. The top runner this fall has been senior Jason Heusinger. Running a close second is junior Chase Hoppock and senior Bobby Gibson has been the No. 3 runner. Rounding out the top five are junior Jordan Shelton and senior Rodney Miller. As a team this fall, Stratford’s boys finished first at the Wolf Run, hosted by Timberland. They ran to a second-place finish at the Pinewood Prep Invite and the Lakelands Invite in Greenwood. The Knights were fourth at the Warriors Invite in Pawley’s Island. The three teams that finished ahead of Stratford were AAAAA top-ranked Fort Mil, AAAAA second-ranked Lexington, and AAA top-ranked Philip Simmons. Stratford has finished in the top five in every race this fall and has set a goal to finish in the top eight at the Class AAAAA state meet. Anchoring the girls’ effort this fall is junior Cloe Runion. Freshman Sophia Thill runs second in the order, followed by junior Haley Lovelady. Sophomore Emily Knox and senior Anne Withers round out the top five runners. The girls team have team wins at both the Pinewood Prep Invite and the Lakelands Invite. They were the runner-up at the Stall Invite and the Pawleys at Night Invite. Roudabush says a good goal for the girls team is a top 10 finish at the AAAAA state meet in November.

Goose Creek – Stratford head football coach Dennie McDaniel expected better things last season than what he and his Knights produced, but last year’s 2-9 record is a distant memory. McDaniel has put his focus on 2023 and again feels his team, despite some obvious youth in some areas, can be a team that improves as the season progresses. The Knights will have to do that improving against a competitive non-region slate of games that includes AAAA top 10 James Island, and AAAAA top 10 teams Lexington, Dutch Fork and Summerville. Stratford opened the season on Aug. 18 against James Island, taking a 25-7 loss. “It’s a challenging schedule for sure but we feel like it’s also an opportunity to improve,” said McDaniel, a former Stratford player now in his fifth season as head coach. “The goal is to improve, stay healthy as we can, and be ready to compete with the teams in our region. We certainly should be battle-tested going into region play.” Stratford has as good a chance as any team in region 6-AAAAA to come away with a region title. The league has been won by Goose Creek for the last four years but the Gators are rebuilding a bit this fall. Cane Bay, Berkeley and Wando are teams Stratford competed very well against last season. McDaniel feels his team showed great determination in the offseason work. His projected starting lineup will include a mix of underclassmen and seniors but far less experience on the offensive side of the ball. Leading that young offense is sophomore quarterback Jachin Davis, who took the reins midway through last season and performed well. Davis already is attracting major college interest and offers. “He’s just a sophomore with so much more ahead of him but he has great arm talent and is a special athlete,” McDaniel said. “He is certainly the key to our success offensively.” The offensive line is the most experienced area of the team, led by senior third-year starter Landon Stradcutter. Junior tackles DJ Crawford and Wes Snowden are potential Division I prospects as well. Junior Kerwin Squire arrives from the junior varsity team and will be a primary performer at running back. Heading up the receiving corps is sophomore JQ Crosby, with Warrick Yoder, a transfer from Hawaii, expected to make an impact. Junior tight end Jacob Deacon also figures into the mix as a threat. Senior outside linebackers Trey Davis and Anhrei McMillan will be key leaders defensively. On the inside are Josh Faucett and Darrell Holmes, who was a two-year starter at defensive end. Anchoring the front is nose tackle Otis Gardner, a returning starter. Silas Carr has moved over from the offensive line to occupy a role along the defensive line, Also moving from offense to defense is safety Will Aleff.

Quarterback Braxton Scott passes for 214 yards and two TDs in return from injury