September 12, 2011
FRIENDSWOOD — The Houston Stratford Spartans picked up their first win of the season over the Friendswood Mustangs 28-13 to improve to 1-2 while the Mustangs drop to 1-2.
Junior quarterback Jordan Wood, who was forced to step up in a new position due to the season-ending injury to QB Hayden Gardner, completed 12-of-18 passing for 99 yards and a touchdown, but there were also two costly interceptions that helped Stratford in their win. The Spartans also got another interception from running back Jonathan Johnson.
Wood led the Mustangs to a game-opening scoring drive and capped it off with a 4-yard keeper. Michael Montalvo booted the extra point for an early 7-0 lead with 9:30 left in the first period.
The Spartans answered with a 28-yard scoring run by Bryan Skulski to tie up the game 7-7 with 6:16 remaining in the quarter and would remain that way entering the second period.
Stratford would go on to score two more times before intermissions as Skulski would score again on a 25-yard run and then Max Bredthauer would be on the receiving end of a 39-yard scoring strike from the arm of quarterback Jeremiah Briscoe to increase the lead to 21-7 at halftime.
Wood attempted to get the Mustangs back into the game when he tossed a 7-yard scoring pass to Trevor Stevens early in the third quarter to close the gap to 21-13 after the PAT was no good.
That would be as close as Friendswood would get as Skulski scored his third touchdown of the game on a 60-yard jaunt with only 5:27 left in the game to post the final score 28-13.
Jonathan Johnson turned in another outstanding game with 25 carries for 182 yards while Wood also used his feet to pick up 119 yards on 19 totes and one score.
Johnson had four catches for 17 yards. Gunner Holle had two grabs for 37 yards and Matt Morris had two catches for 23 yards.
The Mustangs outgained the Spartans 415 to 387 yards. Stratford finished with 10-of-18 passing for 132 yards and one score. Skulski had 13 carries for 175 yards and three TDs.
Friendswood will travel to face Channelview on Saturday, September 17 at Galena Park ISD at 7:00 p.m. Channelview is 2-1 on the season with wins over Humble (27-25) and Pasadena Memorial (48-14). Their only loss was to Kingwood Park (13-10).
The Falcons will have their own air show for Friendswood as their quarterback, Averion Hurts, was named the Chronicle's Player of the Week after hitting 18-of-22 passing for 336 yards and four TDs against Pasadena Memorial.
This will be the final non-district game for Friendswood before entering the tough District 24-4A competition.