By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

Paul Carroll preached all week long.

Defense and special teams, special teams and defense. Those two phases of the game would win somebody a state championship on Saturday night.

Come back Monday for video from Saturday night

And the second-year Stratford head coach was right. Fortunately, they won a state championship for his team.

Stratford took advantage of a special teams miscue and then clamped down on defense to edge Brookstone 14-7 Saturday night for the GIAA Class AAAA state title at Mercer’s Five Star Stadium.

GIAA AAAA championship: Stratford lost a standout running back, but responded in all phases to make the run others didn't expect

A drenched Carroll stood surrounded by the Eagles as he said it again.

“I told you,” he said. “It would come down to defense and special teams. All week long, did I tell you that?”

He heard a lot of “Yes sir” in response.

“Unreal, unreal,” said Carroll, in his second year at Stratford (11-2) after a career in public schools. “It’s emotional, big-time, with these kids (who) put so much work in, these coaches who put so much work in, to get this final game and to win this final game is unreal.

“Never felt any better.”

The 48-minute slugfest had turned toward Brookstone in the second half.

The Cougars (10-3) opened the third quarter with a momentum-grabbing 11-play, 80-yard drive during which Brookstone’s offense had the sharpest stretch of either team’s unit to that point.

**Stratford head coach Paul Carroll points to where championship rings will be going**
*Photo: Michael A. Lough/TCGSR*

They were saved by a 5-yard penalty for running into the kicker, and then converted a fourth and 2 with a 6-yard pass. Then Jason Kelly outbattled an Eagle for a 12-yard touchdown with 8:13 left in the third.

The PAT gave Brookstone a 7-6 lead.

Stratford wasted a personal foul penalty and punted, and Brookstone started moving again, reaching the Stratford 35. A penalty sabotaged the drive and led to a punt.

The Eagles got rolling, grabbing 36 yards on consecutive passes from Tucker Johnston to Jett Johnston. The combo lost six on a first down to stall that drive, and George Dunn’s 38-yard field goal attempt was smacked off target at the line of scrimmage.

Then came the play of the game.

The punt snap to Brookstone’s Jimmy Hunter was high, disrupting the play. He jumped and caught it, but the process was slowed and freshman Morris Butler Jr. – who entered the game with 12 tackles - smothered the kick.

Sophomore Brady Flournoy covered the ball at the 1, and Aaron Jefferson went in a play later. The unsettled Eagles had a personnel issue on the point-after, but got two points on a play-action reverse to Jett Johnston, who went in around the left end with 5:16 left in the game for a 14-7 lead.

“Huge momentum change,” Carroll said. “We were struggling a little bit there all night on offense for awhile. We talked to ‘em all week long. It’s about defense, it’s about special teams when you get into games like this.”

The Cougars got 17 on a nice slant pass-and-catch from Broughton Branch to Jason Kelly. William Stephens answered with a sack and 4-yard loss, leading to a punt.

The Eagles were flagged for 15 yards on first down, and punted it back, Brookstone taking over at midfield with 2:14 left to set up a dramatic finish.

A late hit call right in front of the Stratford staff sent blood pressure skyrocketing, and Brookstone had a first down at the 22. But senior Maddox Whitehead blasted in from the right defensive side and dropped Branch for a 9-yard loss.

Two plays later, a sack by Jefferson put Brookstone against the wall with a fourth and long at its 39.

Whitehead again came calling from the right side and forced Branch from the pocket. His off-balance pass landed nowhere near a Cougar, and all that was left for Stratford was 25 seconds and a snap.

And the Eagles had their first state title since 2004.

Whitehead was struggling a little to grasp that concept. Where did sophomore Whitehead expect senior Whitehead and the Eagles to be?

“Honestly, I did not know,” said Whitehead, in on a dozen or so tackles, mostly behind the line. “But it was not being a state champion. Not at all.

“It’s been bumpy, for sure, especially last year after losing in the playoffs to the same team we just played tonight.”

Brookstone edged Stratford 33-28 in the first round of the playoffs after taking a 33-27 overtime win in Columbus less than two months earlier.

Stratford returned the favor this year, thumping the visiting Cougars 41-14 on Sept. 19 and finishing the sweep Saturday.

Neither offense got into many sharp grooves. But Stratford did with a 92-yard drive after yet another Brookstone punt got a big roll.

Quarterback Johnston kept for 14 on third and 16, and Jefferson converted a third and short with a 54-yard burst down the right side, finally getting tripped up at the 11. Three plays later, Ja’Lon Smith took it in, with Johnston – about 80 pounds lighter – pushing from behind.

But the PAT bounced off the right upright, and the lead was 6-0 with 9:46 left in the half. The teams combined for all of one first down the rest of the quarter.

That continued through the second half as the defenses kept the offenses in check. Jefferson finished with 116 yards on 15 carries, Johnston going 11 of 15 for 73 yards in the air.

“I told them at half, ‘We got 24 minutes to win this ballgame,’” Carroll said. “We gave up a couple big plays here and there, but I think we manhandled their guys up front, had some big sack there at the end.”

A theme for the week was a band on the Eagles’ ring fingers to remind them what they were working for.

“All week long, we all had a blue piece of electrical tape on our finger, ring finger,” Carroll said. “And I told them, ‘Saturday night, you’re going to be taking (it) off to put a ring on, or you’re going to be taking (it) off and you’re going to be said about not winning the ballgame.

“And those guys just stepped up big-time.”