With another Prep League Title in sight, Woodberry Forest hosted Benedictine on Friday evening with mostly pride on the line playing the fourth-ranked team in VISAA Division 1. The Tigers took a little bit to get going, but with a big play on special teams in the start of the second, Woodberry got the spark they needed. The Tigers got a defensive touchdown moments later and with the offense getting things going shortly there after, Woodberry was able to answer every punch the Cadets threw en route to a 40-30 win.
“Early in the game while the offense was misfiring some we got the plays we needed on defense and special teams,” said Woodberry coach Scott Braswell. “I thought they carried us early. This was a big win and bolsters our Prep League reputation wise but now we’ve got three big ones to finish up the regular season with two big rivalry games. This season has gone by fast but I hope this game gives us the momentum going into the last part of the year.”
After a whole bunch of punts from both sides, Benedictine got on the board first with a short field drive capped by a 1-yard run from Stevie Walden at the end of the first. On the ensuing Cadet drive, a fumbled snap led to Bill Clark coming up with a fumble recovery for a touchdown. Then on the next Benedictine drive Woodberry got a 3-and-out followed by a punt blocked by Jianna Woodson Brooks that was recovered in the right corner of the endzone by Bennett Hudson to make it 14-6 with 10:21 left in the second.
“We knew it was going to be a dog fight,” Clark said. “We had a couple of big plays (special teams, defensively) like that — we had some guys making plays. Davis Smith, number seven, he’s hitting the quarterback and he’s the only reason I’m getting that ball in the endzone. We came out here ready for a fight and we got one and just luckily came out on top.”
A 77-yard kickoff return for a touchdown from Leon Haughton was the response from the Cadets, but the Tigers were able to get things going offensively with quarterback Ben Locklear hitting DeQuece Carter with a 75-yard bomb to make it 21-13. It the was first big play for an offense that saw both of those two get into a rhythm.
“In practice Ben has been showing it out, this is the norm for him,” Carter said. “Kyle Bilodeau, Staley Wideman, Ford Asherman, George Pettegrew, myself, all the receivers, we all love him and this game was no surprise for us.”
Benedictine rode the legs of Walden for a quick drive to get it to 21-20 right afterwards, but the first of two big field goals from Wills Thompson, the first from 30 yards out came right before the break to send the Tigers into the break up 24-20.
The Cadets took the lead in the beginning of the third quarter with a lot work from receiver Dillon Tennyson in the short passing game and more from Walden on the ground. Another 1-yarder from Walden made it 27-24 for Benedictine with 7:46 left in the third. It took two minutes for Locklear to drive the Tigers down the field before he found Staley Wideman for a 10-yard TD pass to reclaim a lead that the home team would not relinquish.
Then the game centered around Tigers defensive back Jax Hill. The senior was able to make a tackle on a 72-yard run from Walden to keep him out of the endzone. The Tigers defense forced a field goal out of that to maintain the lead at 31-30 with 0:38 to play in the third. Hill came up with an interception to start the fourth quarter and that led to a long drive with plenty more from Locklear. He was able to cap the drive with a 2-yard touchdown run and it was 37-30 with 10:11.
“That’s Jax’s first game back since getting hurt in the first game of the first quarter last year in camp, he just made huge plays,” Braswell said. “It was incredible and I was just so happy for him.”
The Tigers got one more drive from Locklear and the passing attack to set up a 26-yard field goal from Thompson to set up the final score. The game took an interesting turn from there as Woodberry went to battle with the clock. With 3:50 left, Hill came up with another big play on a pass defended deep in Woodberry territory that he tipped right to teammate Thomas Rowland who completed the interception. The Tigers then went to Carter as a wildcat quarterback to chew up the clock which worked swimmingly to wrap up the win a handful of first downs and chew threw Benedictine’s remaining timeouts.
“We thought about how he had not been able to run the ball too well but needed to so let’s go with 11-on-11 and put DeQuece back there where the quarterback is getting the ball and running,” Braswell said. “He’s not handing off and watching. DeQuece is pretty special, pretty dynamic. So it was an easy decision but we just had to hope he had enough left in the tank and he did.”
On the day, Locklear went 23-44 with 335 yards, two passing touchdowns, and another on the ground. Carter finished with 231 yards from scrimmage with nine catches for 173 yards to go with eight rushes for 58 yards. Kyle Bilodeau had five catches for 81 yards. Rhys Logan had 12 carries for 81 yards.
“We have such a good mix of guys with speed, size and good hands that everybody goes out there and make good catches, makes it easy on me,” Locklear said. “This was a really good win. We came together after a slow start, talked, worked through it and executed.”
Defensively, Clark had eight tackles, for of them for a loss and two fumble recoveries. Mathieu Pelletier had 15 tackles while John Harris and Taylor Tucker chipped in 13 and 12 respectively.
The Tigers jump back into the Prep League with a road trip to Trinity Episcopal next Saturday before finishing up their regular season at home with Fork Union on the following Friday.
