New quarterback gives Stratford football more options
Some bad weather delayed the start of Sim Patrick’s high school football career at Stratford.
Making the trip to Savannah Country Day on Friday, the senior quarterback was eager to take the field. Patrick transferred to Stratford from Atlanta’s Holy Innocents’ Episcopal during the offseason, and he was ready to step up and play.
The lightning detector indicated otherwise. Patrick needed to be patient ... at least for a little bit.
“I thought they were going to cancel it, so I was kind of mad,” Patrick said. “But once we got back out there, it was all fine.”
The game eventually started, and Stratford won 41-33, a win that had some bright spots and some first-game miscues.
Patrick, who beat out Noah Hill for the starter’s role, had a rather pedestrian stat line: 5-of-10, 112 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions. But he got the job done for Stratford, which defeated Savannah Country Day for the second straight year and now travels to GHSA Class AA No. 6 Wesleyan on Friday.
“For the first game, we had a lot of good things, some things that weren’t so good,” Stratford head coach Mark Farriba said. “It was nice to win, stay healthy and realize that you have other things that you have to work on.
“(Patrick) did good. He was 5-for-10, a couple of touchdown passes, threw the ball well. He handled everything really well.”
The addition of Patrick allows Stratford to spread out its skill position players more.
Quintez Cephus, a basketball star who played quarterback last year, moved out to split end. That forces defenses to watch both the inside (O’Showen Williams) and the outside (Cephus) when facing Stratford’s wing-T offense.
Against Savannah Country Day, Williams ran for 172 yards two on 10 carries, and he also caught three passes for 66 yards and a score. Cephus caught just two passes for 46 yards, but one of those catches went for a 13-yard touchdown.
Last year, Stratford didn’t pass the ball much. Cephus racked up just 248 passing yards during the regular season.
“We have a pass and a run game now,” Williams said. “It will keep the defense wondering what we’re going to do.”
Stratford faces a stronger challenge this week. Wesleyan (2-0) has a 56-0 win over Walker and a 49-6 victory over East Hall -- a Class AAA playoff qualifier last year -- to start the season.
Against East Hall, Wesleyan had 465 yards of total offense, with sophomore quarterback Banks Ramsey completing 18-of-22 passes for 197 yards and a touchdown.
“They’re a good team,” Farriba said. “They hare a heavy senior team, probably 20 seniors on the team, really kind of turned the corner last year. They’ve already played twice, and they had two big wins.”
This story was originally published September 1, 2015 at 7:40 PM with the headline "New quarterback gives Stratford football more options ."