The Varsity football team capped the 2024 regular season with a win over Goose Creek on Friday night at Ray Stackley Field. The Knights defeated the Gators 21-14 to end the regular season for both teams. The Knights and Gators will now shift their attention to the 2024 SCHSL playoffs. Stratford will compete in the Divison 1 Bracket for 5A with playoff pairings being announced today.
Stratford got on the board first in the game with a Kerwin Squire Jr 1 yard touchdown run to cap an 18 play Knight drive. Goose Creek tied things up on a 65 yard touchdown pass to knot the game at 7 heading to the second quarter. The Knights reclaimed the lead on a 14 yard touchdown pass from Jachin Davis to Terrell Ross. Stratford took the 14-7 lead into the locker room at the half.
Coming out of halftime, Goose Creek would pick up the only score of the third quarter tying the game at 14. In the fourth, Jachin Davis would punch the ball in from one yard out to give the Knights a 21-14 lead. The Stratford defense came up big with a stop to give the Knights the ball back with around 6 minutes to go in the game. The Stratford offense was able to kill around four minutes of the clock and punted back to Goose Creek with just under 2 minutes to play. Goose Creek would advance the ball to the Knight 45 but a fourth down pass into the endzone with 3 seconds left would fall incomplete giving the Knights the rivalry win and Golden Goose trophy for the second year in a row.
Davis finished the game 14/21 for 178 yards and 2 touchdowns (1 passing/1 rushing). His primary target through the air was J'Qwan Crosby. Crosby finished the night with five catches for 119 yards with several key catches in the game. Kerwin Squire Jr was the Knights leading rusher with 19 carries for 67 yards and a touchdown.
Defensively the Knights picked up sacks from Otis Gardner, Kermit Davis, and Cartel Dawson. Stratford finished the game with 320 yards of offense. For the season, the Knights are averaging 375 yards a game.
