By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

Back when the weather was as warm as it’s supposed to be, Paul Carroll started hearing it.

Stratford cracked 40 points in its first three games, winning by 32, 35, and six (to GHSA Class A second-round playoff team Wilkinson County).

“I think the other coaches a saw it earlier in the year. I don’t know any more. They would tell me, ‘Coach, we’re gonna be a dang good football team, we’re gonna make a run at this thing.’ And this and that.”

The graduate of Hardaway in Columbus and Georgia Southern hit the internal mute button.

Carroll paid not a lick of attention, because thinking about things months away means nothing. It gets in the way of thinking about what was days away: the next game.

“That’s something they looked at,” he said. “I just, I never looked at it that way. I said I’m not into speculating, I’m into getting it done.”

Brookstone Cougars
10-2
Tattnall Square            49-6
Valwood School          51-37
Mount Vernon             28-13
First Presbyterian       31-22
Southwest Georgia     35-14
Stratford                       14-41
Calvary Christian       25-12
St. Anne-Pacelli          19-14
Westfield                     7-17
Strong Rock                 23-13
State playoffs
St. Anne-Pacelli          35-7
First Presbyterian       13-0
State championship games
2023 Lost 44-24 to FPD
1987 Lost 19-14 to Lincoln County (GHSA)

Stratford Eagles
10-2
St. Anne-Pacelli          49-17
Pinewood Christian    40-5
Wilkinson County       40-34
Frederica           28-13
Brookstone                  41-14
John Milledge             13-51
first Presbyterian        10-21
Tattnall Square            49-0
Mount de Sales           49-3
Calvary Christian       34-7
State playoffs
Calvary Christian       37-21
George Walton 33-6
State championship games
2022 Lost 10-0 to St. Anne-Pacelli
2013 Lost 34-31 to Westfield
2011 Lost 35-12 to Tattnall
2004 Beat FPD 35-34 in OT
2000 Beat Tattnall 14-7
1999 Beat Tattnall 24-6
1994 Lost 20-7 to Tattnall
1993 Beat Westfield 22-14
1983 Beat FPD 7-6
1978 Lost 21-14 to Savannah Christian
1977 Lost 33-10 to Savannah Christian
1972 Beat Deerfield-Windsor 19-7
1971 Beat Ravenwood 14-9
1970 Beat Deerfield-Windsor 22-6

And the “it” is simply the next game. Carroll plans ahead, but he doesn’t look ahead.

Now, he can finally do both at the same time.

Carroll gets an extra day for all of it as he gets Stratford ready for the GIAA Class AAAA championship game Saturday night at Mercer’s Five Star Stadium.

Even now, Carroll talks more about the next game, rather than what the next game means. A championship week is not a week of routine.

“It’s chaotic,” Carroll said. “We’re trying to keep it (normal). I just know that there’s a game to be played and it’s the last game of the season, and this is what just about every high school football player in the country wants to have the opportunity for.”

When Carroll got the job, his stress level rose, along with his concerns about strength, physical and otherwise.

It was a concern throughout his first season, a 7-3 year that ended with a tight loss at Brookstone in the first round.

It remained a focal point in the offseason, and again in camp. Carroll liked the improving team outlook and work ethic, but strength was still something of an issue.

But less and less each month, each week.

That emphasis has paid the kinds of dividends that lead to a championship game.

Increased mental toughness goes hand in hand with physical toughness, and the Eagles have shown both this season. A 5-0 start was followed by a two-game losing streak, and some in-house adjustments.

Stratford answered adversity

Discussing Maddox Whitehead brings a smile to Carroll’s face. Whitehead may be the poster child for what Carroll has been looking for in his first venture coaching at a private school.

“He’s the real deal,” Carroll said of the 6-2, 220-pound senior. “His motor is always running. The biggest thing with him that I’ve seen is the fact that he dang got in that weight room and bought in to what we were trying to do.”

Whitehead added weight and muscle, noticeably so.

“It’s just amazing,” Carroll said. “I should’ve taken a picture of him when he first started.”

Whitehead epitomizes a difference between 2024 and 2025.

“He’s one of those guys that’s got some toughness about him,” Carroll said. “He’s got a little (attitude) about him at times. And there are other guys are like that.

“I’m not talking disrespectful. He’s a little hard-nosed about some things.”

He has plenty of company in the weight room.

The increased physicality has helped make up for a lack of experience. The Eagles are in their first championship game since 2022 and second since 2013 with only four seniors currently in uniform.

They lost a huge senior piece nearly six weeks ago when Tyler Stephens, on target for a run at a 2,000-yard season, went down early against Mount de Sales with as season-ending knee injury.

Stratford thumped Brookstone 41-14 back on Sept. 19, but it’s not a game that Carroll has put much into.

For one, that was 28 quarters and seven games ago. The teams that line up on Nov. 22 are different than the ones who lined up two months and a few days earlier.

Plus, to Carroll’s mind, that score might be a bit deceiving.

“Yeah, we beat them, but when I went back and looked at the film, they didn’t play their best game and we didn’t play our best game,” Carroll said. “We left points on the board, and defensively, we left some things out there.

“We had more explosive plays than they did, but …”

Saturday’s matchup will be more even in that regard with the absence of Stephens, a breakaway runner who could get to the edge and then get into the secondary in a flash.

Both teams have done some tweaking since then.

“Running the football,” Carroll said of the Cougars. “Offensively, they decided they were going to run the football a lot more.”

The Cougars have averaged about the same number of carries in the final four regular-season games as they did in the first five, with Stratford in the middle, about 23 carries a game.

In playoff wins over St. Anne-Pacelli and FPD, though, Brookstone has been ground bound with 34 carries a game.

Quarterback Broughton Branch remains of huge impact, having passed for 2,003 yards, 24 touchdowns and nine interceptions.

The 6-2, 195-pound junior is unafraid to tuck and run, leading Brookstone with 469 yards. The Cougars have five backs who get a fair number of carries.

In the 13-0 defensive semifinal win over FPD, Branch was 12 of 16 for 111 yards, and Brookstone ran for 126 yards on 30 carries, led by Sammy Laboy’s 43 yards on seven tries.

Thus, Stratford’s defense faces a balanced offense and playmaking quarterback. But that unit is playing pretty well for the Eagles.

Stratford is giving up 16 points a game, its best mark since allowing 14.8 in 2017, a 10-2 season that ended in the second GHSA playoff game, a 14-7 loss to Mount Paran Christian.

Carroll is pretty happy with his defense despite any reluctance to think too positively or, well, think too far ahead.

“I was happy on Friday night,” he said after the 33-6 win over George Walton. “I’m back to square one getting ready for the next game.”

Brookstone won’t have to deal with the speed of Stephens, who went off for 234 yards on 21 carries with five touchdowns in the first meeting.

But freshman Aaron Jefferson ran for100 yards on 14 carries in that game, and quarterback Tucker Johnston completed 8 of 11 for 100 yards and a touchdown.

Jefferson, also a starting linebacker, is battling an ankle injury.

“I’m fine,” Jefferson said. “I’ll be great by (this) week. I feel like I’m playing good, and I can step up for my team when they’re needing me.”

He averages 7.3 yards a carry, and is just behind Whitehead with 6.8 tackles a game.

“Their linebackers and D-line are a lot better as far as stopping the run,” Carroll said. “We’re going to get the box loaded up and they’re going to try to stop the run, even though Tyler’s not here.”

Johnston is also a running threat, with 265 yards on 80 carries and 10 rushing touchdowns.

Since an adjustment in offensive philosophy and priority after losing to FPD, Johnston has completed at least 62 percent of his passes in every game, and has thrown for five touchdowns with no interceptions.

“We picked up our tempo,” Jefferson said. “We like to run the play back to back to back to get the defense off balance. I feel like we adjusted to it pretty well.”

Carroll has spent the week combining confidence and concern. Knowing what to do and doing it are always two different things.

Especially with what’s at stake.

“I’m excited, don’t get me wrong,” said Carroll, who last coached in a state championship game in 1997 with Tift County, a 21-7 loss to Parkview in the GHSA Class 4A finale. “There’s a big task at hand on Saturday night. And they have a confidence, like, “(Dang), Coach …’

“If our kids focus, I think we’re going to play well, and that’s the main thing right now.”