Woodberry Forest’s defense has been one of its strong points all year long, but on Tuesday against Blue Ridge, the Barons made the most of their play one-on-one and close in. After building up a big lead in the first half, Blue Ridge saw its margin evaporate in the third quarter, but Tanner Fisher closed that frame to even the score and then scored his fifth goal of the game with five minutes to go in the fourth to put his team up by two. It was a wild finish with Woodberry closing the gap at the end in the last seconds. But after struggled on faceoffs all game, the Barons came up with the most important one to seal a big win over the Tigers that will likely secure a VISAA Division 1 playoff position.
“We came out ready to work,” said Blue Ridge coach Kyle Gardener. “The guys were fired up, there was a lot of intensity. We out-gunned them in the first half. The second half I think we got gassed and they’ve got a deep bench. We were able to rally up after a time out and we told them just to dig deep and grind it out. They did.”
The first half belonged to the Barons with Fisher netting a pair of quick goals in the first three minutes of play to make it 2-0.
“We needed to come out strong and I feel like when we haven’t, we haven’t had a good game,” Fisher said. “I made sure to step it up. I like to get in one-on-one, nice and tight and what really worked was getting behind the net.”
The two teams traded the next four goals to keep it a 2-goal game going into the second, but Woodberry midfield Carlson Milikin punched home the first goal the second to put his team within one.
Four of the next five goals belonged to Blue Ridge though. After Fisher picked up his third, Tigers attackman David Little answered back, but three straight goals from Chase Frasor made it 8-4 for the Barons going into the break.
Tiger coach Brian Hemming didn’t go crazy at halftime to inspire his team, instead he simply wrote “effort” on the white board at the break.
“When teams come out at halftime everyone assumes its screaming and yelling and beating on your chest,” Heimming said. “That wasn’t the case. We came in and talked with a calm tone and said ‘Effort, fellas.’ That’s all it is. Blue Ridge is a talented team and took advantage of our mental errors. I thought we put it back together, faced the adversity and played some good lacrosse in the second half.”
The message was received with Todd Fedyck scoring to start the third quarter and little finding the back of the net twice more, including a behind the back shot. Then Milikin and James Hewell struck to make it a 5-0 run to put the home team up 9-8 late in the period.
Frasor and Fisher fought through late to put Blue Ridge back in front. And the wild pace from the first third quarters disappated in the fourth with both defenses coming up big. Fisher scored the first goal of the last frame with 4:36 left to make it a 2-goal game. The Barons tried to kill the clock from that point out, but Woodberry took control with two minutes left.
The Tigers second to last possession was long and featured a slew of shots, but nothing in the net. Then with less than thirty seconds the two teams traded turnovers and Milkin capitalized on a fast break to make it a 1-goal contest again with 8.9 seconds remaining. Woodberry owned the faceoffs on the day, including Dow Perkins winning nine of the first 10, but Blue Ridge battled on the last one of the game to run out the clock to wrap up the win.
“Coach told us that they were going come at us in the second half with their whole team and gas us,” Fisher said. “We were gassed. But we knew we had to hold on strong and then wait to capitalize on a mistakes late.”
Blue Ridge (10-3) heads to Roanoke Catholic on Friday at 4:30 p.m.
Woodberry (12-4) travels to St. Anne’s-Belfield on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. for what looks to be an early playoff preview.
