Woodberry Forest refused to go away this time.
Just a few weeks after St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes hammered the Tigers on their home turf, Woodberry gave the Saints all they could handle Friday evening before falling 8-5 to SSSA in the VISAA Division I semifinals.
“They did a great job — we were fortunate the last time we played them, that was arguably the best game we played all year,” said St. Stephen’s coach Andy Taibl. “I’m proud with the way our kids weathered it. I never thought we got on any kind of roll and that’s a testament to what they did to counter us.”
The Tigers didn’t catch many breaks either, including a wild late first half goal from Saints goalie Sam Beazell where the Loyola-bound keeper launched the ball in an attempt to melt the clock and it sailed, without a bounce, into the Tigers’ goal.
“I didn’t know exactly how much time (was left in the half),” Beazell said. “I made a save and I wanted to get it out of the zone so I chucked it and it went in. Dumb luck.”
But Woodberry managed to shake off the deflating goal and stay in it with the Saints. The Tigers scrapped and clawed their way just to hang with St. Stephen’s, whose defense is very difficult to create against. Holding Woodberry’s star midfielder Todd Fedyck and one of the leading scorers in the Tigers’ history in attackman Will Tucker, to just a single goal (Tucker’s) was an incredible accomplishment for the Saints’ defense.
The Tigers’ own defense gave the Saints all kinds of problems too. SSSA struggled to recreate the regular season blowout as J.P. Connell, John C. Williams and Vance Spilman combined on defense with goalie Ben Pugh’s 16 saves to clamp down on the explosive Saints’, offense, with only Seth Miller scoring multiple goals (four) for St. Stephen’s.
Pugh, in particular, was a monster in the cage, making key save after save for the Tigers in his final effort at Woodberry before he heads to Richmond next fall.
The Tigers held the Saints to just two second half goals after SSSA built a 6-3 lead before the break.
Pat Shea had two goals for the Tigers while James Hewell scored once, with Connell also scoring, with 3:13 left. At that point, the Tigers seemed poised to rally, but in almost every even or settled situation, the Saints’ defense proved up to the task.
The loss ends an incredible season for Woodberry where the Tigers won the Prep League championship and advanced to the state semifinals for the first time in the tenure of a strong senior class that Tucker, Pugh and Williams.
“If you look at the journey we took this year from where we started to where ended and everything in between — there’s a lot these guys have to be proud of and should be proud of,” said Woodberry coach Brian Hemming. “That’s a great legacy that’s being left and a great foundation to build off of.”
