STRATFORD – Since dropping the opening two games of the season, the mighty Tigers have roared back, and placed themselves into position to once again compete for a state championship.
Throughout the 2025 postseason, few football teams have looked better than Stratford on both sides of the ball, and the two-way effort has once again led the Tigers into the state qualifier game where Stratford is contending for a state’s best 11 football championships.
Stratford first-year head coach Marshall Lehman said each year is a work-in-progress, but after ripping off 10 consecutive victories, he and the Tiger coaching staff have quickly reaped the benefits of a deep playoff run in his first season as head coach.
It’s a gratifying feeling.
“When you’re putting a lot of hard work in and it’s paying off, it helps you feel a little better because of all the missing time away from your family. That means a lot to me, my family,” Lehman said. “So having to take a little more time away from them at points of this year to make sure we’re able to be successful and these kids are able to grow as young men, that’s been a lot so it definitely is rewarding, but ultimately it’s our whole entire coaching staff and the fact that we work together so well and are able to get these players to execute week-by-week and get better week-by-week.”
Ironically, Lehman said one of the biggest evolutions of this Stratford group this season was the togetherness from Week 1 until now. When adversity struck early, he said the group did more than rally around one another, they evolved into something more.
“I would say family. This team has really come together as a family,” Lehman said. “and we had to do that after the first couple of weeks that were tough on us in a lot of different aspects with injuries, adversity and, you know, losing a couple games early on.
“They’ve come together and really just bonded as a group, and they’re having tons of fun doing it.”
No. 2 Stratford vs No. 2 Northwestern
Representing the No. 2 seeds in the Division 5 side of the WIAA football tournament bracket, Stratford and unbeaten Northwestern are on a collision course at which something must give.
The Northwestern program, who has looked stout all season, enters the Level 4 matchup with the Tigers as one of the only unbeaten teams remaining in postseason, while Stratford is looking to see if they can make good on four consecutive state championships after switching divisions at the end of last year.
He said, for the community, a win in the state qualifying game against Northwestern would be “pretty special.”
“We’re continuously with this new point system, having to move up and move down in divisions. It’s making for excitement and continually allows us to, you know, drive for more, and have to take on different schools and continue to get better every single week and every single year,” Lehman said. “So yes, we’ve been down there before. We’ve been down there three years in a row, but it certainly is still very rewarding. The community is on our side, has been traveling with us and cheering us on, and it’s a fun tradition to be part of.
“I know this year, no matter what the outcome is, it won’t be any different, the support of this community has been amazing.”
The last time Stratford and perennial contender Northwestern played one another was in the playoffs in 2019 – a game Lehman, who was an assistant at the time, said Stratford came in with a bunch of momentum for, and played a mostly mistake free game to get a 35-0 shutout victory.
Lehman said it will take a similar effort and approach to knock off the Tigers and clinch a fourth consecutive state championship appearance.
Contact or send game stats/info to Sports Reporter Alfred Smith III at alfred.smith@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @AlfredS_III.
This article originally appeared on Marshfield News-Herald: Stratford football one win away from fourth consecutive state championship berth
Reporting by Alfred Smith III, Marshfield News-Herald / Marshfield News-Herald
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
