Since Woodberry Forest does not participate in the VISAA postseason in football, a September meeting at Liberty University to face the winner of five of the last seven Division 1 titles in Liberty Christian had all the feel of a primetime playoff game.
“It was a battle,” said Bulldogs coach Frank Rocco. “Two titans went at it tonight.”
And if Woodberry Forest quarterback Hunter Etherdige had been ruled down late in the fourth, the mood on both sides might have been different after the game. Instead though, on a keeper to help inch his team closer to earning a two possession lead, officials ruled that Liberty Christian forced a fumble before Etheridge was down. That turnover paired with clutch play from Bulldogs quarterback Matt Lewis wound up being the turning point in the fourth quarter as LCA hit WFS with back-to-back touchdowns to rally for a 28-17 win.
“Our kids stepped up in some key situations and made some very big plays,” Rocco said. “In our 10 years here our coaching staff has been blessed to win a lot of football games but this one was as big as any against a very good football team, a well coached team.”
From start to finish when LCA needed a big play, it went out and got it. The Bulldogs first play from scrimmage was a 73-yard strike from Lewis to Cameron Jones. And from there what ensued was a great battle between both defenses.
“I was proud of our defense because (Liberty) is tough to deal with,” said Tigers coach Clint Alexander. “They’ve got a college offensive line, a special group of receivers and a kid that throws it a mile. Trying to defend all of that when we only had three days of practice because of weather, it was a lot to deal with.”
Woodberry tied things up late in the second after its special teams snuffed out a fake punt at midfield. Etheridge, running back James Hewell and receiver Trent Ragland put the Tigers at the goaline. On a 2-yard keeper the WFS quarterback tied the game up at 7 with 4:10 until the half. The Bulldogs offense came to life to finish out the first half. Just one play after Woodberry’s secondary missed out on an interception Lewis found Josh Barrick for a 25-yard touchdown to reclaim the 7-point advantage for LCA.
“We had not been playing LCA football coming into tonight and so we said tonight we wanted to go in attack mode,” Rocco said. “So when it was a pass down we ran, when it was a run down, we threw. We had to keep them on edge.”
In the third quarter Woodberry’s defense clamped down, forcing three straight 3-and-outs before its offense made it a 14-10 game on a 22-yard FG from Michael Armstrong. The momentum spilled over into the fourth quarter when Woodberry watched running back HT Minor break loose for a 49-yard rushing touchdown to give his team a 17-14 lead.
“I felt like we had the momentum, we had the lead,” Alexander said. “Of course the one thing we didn’t want to happen was for (Farrow) to get the ball.”
LCA didn’t wait long to on a big kickoff return from Farrow followed by more yardage in the air from Lewis’ arm. With 8:37 to go, Lewis came up with a crucial conversion on third down with a 12-yard play-action touchdown pass to Brian Ogle. That set up Woodberry’s ill-fated next drive. A big catch by Christian Asher put the Tigers in business and Etheridge, Hewell and Minor ran Woodberry to the redzone. But on a short run at the Bulldogs six yard line the drive ended suddenly on the aforementioned controversial fumble. LCA marched all the way down for a 93-yard touchdown, this time a 1-yard run from Barrick to pick up an insurance score and put the game out of reach.
“We told the kids coming down here that if we made a mistake that LCA was going to take advantage of it and they did,” Alexander said.
For Woodberry, Minor finished with 130 yard on 15 touches while Hewell added 62 on his 14 attempts. Etheridge finished 9 for 16 passing with 124 yards and added 30 on the ground. Vance Spilman had two receptions for 42 yards.
For LCA, Lewis went 20 for 26 for 336 yards. Jones led receivers with 124 yards while Farrow and Barrick had 92 and 86 yards respectively.
Woodberry (1-1) will look to bounce back in its home opener against Paul VI on Saturday at 2 p.m.
