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Stillwater avenges regular season loss to Woodbury, nets game's lone goal late

By Adam Holt, SportsEngine, 10/17/17, 10:00AM CDT

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The Ponies advance to the state tournament after claiming the Class 2A, Section 4 title.



Stillwater senior Jorge Malon goes to the ground in a battle for the ball with Woodbury's Nate Hanson in the Class 2A, Section 4 final in Stillwater. The Ponies defeated the Royals 1-0. Photo by Jeff Lawler, SportsEngine


Stillwater midfielder Max Stauffer fights for the ball against a Woodbury defender in the Class 2A, Section 4 final. Stauffer scored the Ponies' lone goal in their 1-0 victory over the Royals. Photo by Jeff Lawler, SportsEngine

It was never any secret — not to the Ponies or to any of the other teams in the state. If Stillwater's boys' soccer team was going to have any shot at defending its Class 2A state title in 2017, the Ponies were going to need to find new goal scorers.

Tuesday, after a 1-0 Class 2A, Section 4 championship win over Woodbury, it was evident the Ponies found enough scoring. With the experience they have in goal and on the back line, just enough was more than good enough.

“Everybody’s looking at this team, going, ‘How are they going to replace [the scoring]?’” Stillwater coach Jake Smothers said. “We lost 76 goals to graduation.”

The Pony offense hasn’t been as overwhelming as it was a year ago, but the defense has been just as good. So when it was still scoreless with less than 11 minutes to play against the Royals in the section final, there was no panic.

Instead, junior Max Stauffer, one of the players who’s filled the void in the attack, pounced on a loose ball in the Woodbury box and scored the go-ahead goal in the 70th minute.

The long air ball looked harmless enough, until the Woodbury defense hesitated in when to go and try and clear it.

“I saw the defender not commit to the ball on the first bounce, I decided to come in and instincts kicked in,” Stauffer said. “I didn’t really have time to think about it.”

Stauffer has teamed with players like Spencer Scott to power a Stillwater team that might not have the offensive firepower of the 2016 squad, but has gotten great results — as a 16-1-2 record thus far proves.

“I just came into the year realizing that I had to do my part and that’s all I could do,” Stauffer said. “Try my best, and I might get stuff like this.”

Smothers said the team talked about how the expectations didn’t have to change this year, but that the route to the wins might differ. The Ponies not only embraced that challenge, they embraced other changes too -- Smothers said many of his players played different positions for their club teams, but have adapted for the high school season.

“That’s what’s so special for me with this group, is how many of them filled in, picked up some of the things we needed going in from that we lost last year,” Smothers said. “We’re 16-1-2; it’s not like we were just eking out wins here and there. We played really well.”

The dominance has looked a little different, but the Ponies are doing as good a job defending their title as a team could ask. With veterans holding down the defense, even the younger players on the team are calm in back-to-back 1-0 section wins.

“But just having the mentality of the returning seniors and having their experience really helped the younger players like me adjust and remain calm during games like this,” Stauffer said.

“We also felt the experience, the maturity of this group was going to lend itself to a very successful season, it was just going to look different,” Smothers said. “We were going to win games in different ways than we did last season.”

First report

The quest to repeat as state champions is still very much alive for Stillwater.

As the top seed in the Class 2A, Section 4 boys' soccer tournament, the Ponies avenged their only loss of the regular season, defeating No. 3 seed Woodbury 1-0 Tuesday at Pony Stadium to return to the state tournament.

With just under 11 minutes left in the game, Max Stauffer put away the first and only goal of the game: a loose ball in the Woodbury box that hadn't been cleared.

The defending champion Ponies, ranked No. 2 in the Class 2A coaches' poll, won by shutout in all three of their 2017 section tournament games.

In a game that was scoreless at halftime, goalkeeper Fred LeClair made two saves for Stillwater in posting a shutout. Scott Sampson had eight saves for Woodbury.

Stillwater is now 16-1-2 heading into state. Woodbury finished the season 12-4 overall.

Photo Gallery


Woodbury junior Cade Keesling works upfield in the Class 2A, Section 4 final at Pony Stadium in Stillwater. The Royals fell to the Ponies 1-0. Photo by Jeff Lawler, SportsEngine

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