Last week, Stratford and Memorial faced off in the last regular season game and a first round playoff bye. Memorial defeated Stratford then, but that wasn’t the case Saturday.

The Spartans crushed Memorial 9-4 in the second round of the playoffs at Memorial’s home field.

“They beat us for the second seed and the first-round bye,” Stratford coach Matt Carr said. “But it kind of worked out to our advantage because they’ve been off for about two weeks.”

Stratford capitalized on Memorial’s rest, but not until the third quarter.

The Mustangs came out firing with two immediate goals from Alex Cartwright and Matt Steininger. The Spartans didn’t let those two goals go unanswered though. Sean Stuart and Drew Crawford tied the game at 2 after each putting the ball in the net.

Crawford scored again the second quarter to take the lead just before the half.

“Drew played really well,” Carr said. “He scored a couple of goals. He’s a senior and he really stepped up today and did a good job.

“I knew that once we got up in the third quarter, we could get inside and pull out the win.”

The Spartans scored three in the third. Walker Colt scored his first goal immediately out of the gate. Trevor Davis followed and Colt ended the quarter with a goal on an assist by Robert Wilson.

“Walker Colt is a senior and all-state,” Carr said of his team captain. “He controls our offense. All of our offense works through him.”

The Spartans shut out Memorial in the final quarter with three goals, one apiece from Wilson, Colin Healy, and Crawford.

“Our goalie (Grant Williams) is phenomenal,” Carr said. “He runs everything on the defense. He got an assist today and it is extremely rare for a goalie to have an assist in lacrosse and today was his third on the year.”

Stratford will play Cy-Fair on Sunday.

“It is going to be a barrage,” Carr said. “Cy-Fair is the defending state champions. We beat them last year in the city championship and we are going to give them a game.”

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