Stratford Strikers Soccer Weekly Recap: U16 Girls double up Oriental SC, U15 Girls shutout Waterloo, U18 Boys extend unbeaten streak

Stratford’s Lilly Harrigan tosses the ball near the corner in the first half against Waterloo United at Cowan Field on June 29.

By: Michael Willoughby

A pair of Stratford Strikers girls squads came out of their respective games with a positive result this past week on home turf.

On June 25, the U16 Strikers hosted Cambridge’s Oriental SC in a redo of the June 11 contest, which ended in a no contest due to a power failure at Cowan Field. Played at SERC Tennis Field, Reese Campbell, Niamh Appel and Arabelle Garland combined for six goals as Stratford cruised to an 8-3 win. Mya Meyer and Leighton Nickel scored the first and the final goals for the Strikers in the match.

The win keeps the Strikers within reach of first place with an unbeaten record of 4-2-0, earning a point in every match in the regular season to date and 14 of 18 possible points. As of press time, Puslinch Predators lead the Southwest District Soccer League U16 Division with 19 points and a record of 6-1-0.

Stratford U16's next game is on June 30 against last-place Cambridge United. The recap of the match will be featured in next week’s edition of the Times.

On June 29, the U15 Girls Strikers hosted Waterloo United in a battle for first place in the Southwest District Soccer League U15 Division at Cowan Field.

Goals from team captain Peyton Ward and Reese Campbell, and a fifth shutout of the season from goalkeeper Grace Elliott, put the Strikers past Waterloo with a 2-0 win. The win puts the Strikers at a flawless record of 7-0-0, maintaining first place by a goal differential tiebreaker over the Guelph Jr. Gryphons.

Following the match, Stratford head coach Scott Herman reflected on the team’s performance and looks forward to carrying that momentum into next week’s slate of matches, including their Nothers Youth Cup second-round matchup against Guelph on July 10.

“Performance was good. I thought the girls moved the ball very well tonight. Played good. Yeah, good job out there tonight. We played as a team,” Herman said.

“We're gonna keep going the way we're going. We're gonna fine-tune a couple of things at practice, but other than that, we're gonna keep going the way we're going.”

Stratford’s next match takes place at the VFG Field at Festival Hydro Park on July 6 against Kitchener TFC U14/U15.

Also on June 29, the U18 Stratford Strikers Boys defeated Oriental SC 5-1 to extend their unbeaten streak to eight games in regular-season play. Rogan Catalan and Caden Ollson each had a brace, while Greyson Roth scored the fifth goal for Stratford in the win.