Technically speaking, Woodberry Forest gave Trinity Episcopal a head start by electing to defer to the second half after winning the coin toss before the game. But once the Tigers defense came up with a turnover on the Titans’ opening possession, the rout was on. In just a fifteen minute span, Woodberry reeled off seven touchdowns. It was quick, thorough, and the Tigers were able to use their second team offense and defense for the entire second half. Long story short, there was little that didn’t go Woodberry’s way on Saturday afternoon.
“We had our fall break so not everyone was practicing this week and it was a short week so you get a little worried coming into this one,” said Tigers coach Scott Braswell. “We just didn’t know if we were going to show up or still be on fall break. I thought the guys really took the last 24 hours and got dialed in. I’m proud of their effort and focus. We’ve got some special football players, I think that’s pretty obvious. Hopefully we can continue to get better because we’ve got two more weeks left.”
Facing third down and long on its opening possession, Trinity gave Woodberry excellent field position, or rather, Khalid Thomas did after he came up an impressive interception.
“That was a play where we had a lot of confidence in our coverage,” Thomas said. “I had a guy behind me so I felt aggressive in the play and did what the coaches preached about the whole week.”
Tigers quarterback Will Wideman had yet another big day, connecting on the first of his four passing touchdowns on a 14-yard pass to an uncovered Pete Hutchinson in the back of the right corner of the endzone.
Two minutes later Wideman found Dequece Carter on a 15-yard TD pass, the first of his two on the day. Less than two minutes after that, Wideman had his own number called and he snuck in a five yard rushing touchdown to make it 21-0 with 4:37 left in the first.
The Tigers started the second quarter strongly with running back Jameel Wilson getting going. He picked up the first of his two rushing touchdowns with 9:56 until the break when he housed a 7-yard run to the left edge of the field.
“Our offensive line has just come so far,” Braswell said. “We’re scoring a lot of points with kind of a brand new line and not a lot of guys with a lot of experience. Those guys deserve a lot credit and sometimes they don’t get much because everyone is so focused on all the skill guys we have that are playing so well too.”
Just 70 seconds later it was Carter and Wideman connecting again with the former coming up with a 34-yard touchdown reception. Another 70 seconds later and it was Thomas’ turn as he hauled in a 10-yard pass into the endzone. Wilson wrapped up the scoring for Woodberry with 5:13 left in the second on a 28-yard scoring scamper.
“It’s just a great group of guys we have,” Thomas said. “Ever since I’ve been here, there’s been so many guys that know how to lead and impact the game in so many different ways.”
In between all that scoring was the Woodberry defense coming up with one fourth down stop after another. The Tigers came up with seven fourth down stops in addition to the early interception and a fumble in the second quarter.
“Our identity has been as a run stopping team with guys like Cooper Willis and Warren Mathews,” said Woodberry linebacker Dean Browning. “They are some dogs in the middle and they’re so good and getting a good getoff and pushing the line back that we can rely on getting those short yardage stops pretty much every time it feels like.”
The Titans got on the board with 1:40 until halftime to break up the shutout when Taylor Eggers hit Douglas Powell for a 6-yard TD pass. Trinity would get another touchdown midway through the fourth quarter off a 90-yard run from Donavan Goode.
For Woodberry, Wideman finished 9-for-11 passing with 109 yards and four touchdowns. Wilson had seven rushes for 84 yards. Carter hauled in five passes for 73 yards. Browning had five tackles with two for a loss. Luke Hutchinson and Ward Bissell both had five tackles as well.
The Tigers (5-2) host Fork Union (3-6) on Friday at 2 p.m. Woodberry has won four straight against the Blue Devils.
