Stratford

I had a story to do on Stratford last week and ended up watching the Eagles practice for around an hour last Tuesday, and for that entire hour they worked on the passing game.
If you would have been watching , one would have thought that they were preparing to throw the ball 20 times in the playoff game against Pinecrest.
Wrong
I think they threw it 8 times.
But when you have three running backs that go for over 100 yards, you really don't need to throw it very much do you ?
I really don't know how much good I can say about Mark Farriba and his coaching staff and the way he has prepared his team for the playoffs. It didn't start two weeks ago. It started this summer. Did things work out perfectly for him when he had a quarterback transfer in to him? Sure it did, because Sim Patrick is a big reason why the Eagles are having so much success. But the real reason that Stratford is still playing and no one else in Macon is is Mark Farriba.
And I will tell you something else you may no know.
Stratford is primed to make it to the state championship game.
Let me mention a little bit about last week for Mark Farriba. I believe only Stratford faithful knew that his mother passed away last week. There was no mention of that when I talked to him on Tuesday. I could tell something might not have been just right, but I figured it was the pressures of playoff football. Obviously his heart had to be tugging in several different directions, but football coaches know where they need to be and that was on the football field. But through all of this, after talking to Farriba last week, I had a strong feeling that Stratford would beat Pinecrest.
And then they travel to somewhere they have never been to play a team that had beat THE team in class A private, Mount Paran, two weeks earlier, and Stratford demolished them. I mean they just beat them up and ran it down their throats.
Playoff football, is what Farriba calls it. The kind of football where you have the ball with three minutes left and up 6 and have to run the football for three first downs. The kind of football where O'Showen Williams, Tyler Jordan, and Kasey Sanders pound it until the other team doesn't want to play anymore. That's what the Eagles did to Pinecrest.
Farriba was also quick to say why his defense had trouble stopping people all year long, but all of a sudden in the playoffs, they hold great offensive teams to 7 points. Farriba says it was his fault all the way. He said he did a very poor job of having his defense ready to play. and that it took him a long time to figure out what he needed to be doing on that side of the ball. He said his game plans were poor. Evidently he figured it out at the right time.
So Stratford has played Aquinas twice at home this season and lost both times. The last game was for the region title and the Eagles could not win at home. In fact they got beat up pretty good late in the game. So why would anyone think that they could go on the road and beat someone that has beat them every time they have played in the last two years?
Obviously it's just a hunch, but I saw a look in the eyes of Mark Farriba telling me that his team was up for a challenge. I think the Eagles will win
But if they don't its still been a great year and the Eagles should be proud.