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By Rob Gantt Special to the HSSR GOOSE CREEK – Stratford High School’s girls basketball team recorded its sixth win of the 2024-25 season – two more than all of 2023-24 – with an 80-49 rout of visiting Colleton County Friday, Jan. 3, at Stratford. “They played well,” Knights coach Camille Toliver said. “That’s what we’ve been preaching, to play our ball no matter the opponent, no matter the score. We lock in. We score. We swing the ball around. We rebound the basketball. We get putbacks. We trust what we practice.” Stratford (6-8) tallied 18 points in the opening quarter, then erupted for 34 more in the second stanza to grab a 52-26 halftime lead. This season, the Knights return region player of the year Ciara Mustapher and fellow all-region selection Sydnie Stepney . Mustapher leads in scoring and assists, while Stepney is tops on the team in rebounds, steals and blocks. Both players are senior captains. “They drive what we have, Ciara offensively and Sydnie defensively,” Toliver said. “Those are two girls who work really hard. They’re leaders. Any time the gym is open, they’re in here working.” Mustapher averages more than 20 points per game this winter. She’s been a varsity player since her freshman year. “She’s one of the most loyal players to come through this program,” Toliver said. “She played all the way through the bumps and bruises before our state run a couple years ago. She decided she wanted to be a Knight. She stayed a Knight. In this day and age, it’s so easy to go somewhere else. It’s amazing of her to stay at the school she’s at, have pride in her program, to work hard and push her teammates.” Stepney stacks numbers of rebounds, steals and blocks. She has a knack for making plays around the basket. “She realized last year her thing was defense, getting steals, getting blocks and getting rebounds,” Toliver said. “She plays level-headed. She communicates well down low and lets her teammates know what is going on. She stays composed and goes after the ball. She has great instinct on the basketball, reading passes and seeing passes.” More contributors are freshman Averi Johnson , junior captain Harleigh Mosley , sophomore Jadeyn Wright , senior Raniyah McKune and senior Zay Brown. Stratford is at Summerville (12-1) Tuesday, Jan. 7, in a non-region game before opening the Region 7-5A slate at home Friday, Jan. 10, against Wando High School (13-1). The Knights then host Lucy Beckham (4-5) Tuesday, Jan. 14, and travel to Cane Bay (3-10) Friday, Jan. 17, and Berkeley (10-3) Tuesday, Jan. 21. Stratford caps the first rotation through league play at home versus rival Goose Creek (5-6) Friday, Jan. 24.
By Rob Gantt Special to the HSSR GOOSE CREEK – The Stratford High School football team fought hard in its Region 7-5A opener and nearly pulled off a miraculous comeback, but the Knights had to settle for a 30-22 loss at Berkeley High School Oct. 4 in Moncks Corner. The Knights are the defending league champions and will try to get on track Oct. 11 at home against visiting Lucy Beckham , which moved into the region from Class 4A. They go to Cane Bay Oct. 18, host Wando Oct. 25 and Goose Creek Nov. 1. The Berkeley loss dropped Stratford to 2-4 overall. The Knights were coming off back-to-back wins against Socastee (23-17) and Colleton County (41-14). Junior quarterback Jachin Davis continued a strong season against the Stags, rushing for two scores and passing for another. He reached paydirt on the ground from 1 and 28 yards out and connected with senior Kerwin Squire on a 46-yard touchdown pass. Davis passed for 145 yards and finished with 108 yards on the ground. Stratford trailed 30-12 with under two minutes left, but mounted a rally to scare the home team. Senior linebacker Javien Salters broke through to record a safety and the Davis-Squire hookup pulled the Knights within 30-22. They then got the ensuing onside kick and moved into Berkeley’s 4 before Berkeley’s interception in the end zone on the final play. Heading into the Lucy Beckham contest, Davis has passed for 1,016 yards and rushed for 359 yards, combining for 12 touchdowns. Squire leads the Knights on the ground with 459 yards, while junior Francis Lloyd has chipped in 230 yards rushing. Junior receiver JQ Crosby has been a reliable target for Stratford, hauling in 22 passes for 385 yards. More targets are sophomore Jayden Lee , senior Jacob Deacon , senior Freddie Alston and junior Shawn Harris . In the win over Colleton County , Davis passed for 253 yards and four touchdowns. He connected with Crosby on three scores and Lee on the other. On the ground, Davis scored twice. Against Socastee , Davis tossed a touchdown pass to Crosby, while senior kicker Tyler Stament made three field goals. Running back Malachi Breland also reached paydirt for the Knights.
Stratford Kicker Tyler Stament. Photo courtesy of Rob Gantt
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.”
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