It was instinct, followed by a lightning quick decision.
“Once I saw the ball go back to James Hewell behind the net I saw my defender’s head turn and I cut back door,” said Woodberry Forest sophomore Patrick Shea.
Shea took a well-timed feed from Hewell and scored the game-winning goal from point blank range with a little more than three minutes left in overtime. The goal gave the Tigers an 11-10 win over St. Anne’s-Belfield in the VISAA quarterfinals.
The Tigers battled back from down two goals with an incredible run at the end of the third quarter, with Hewell, Will Tucker and Tiger Ripley scoring back-to-back goals that put Woodberry up 9-8 to start the final frame. Wylie Mendicino ignited that run with three straight faceoff wins where the usually physical sophomore faceoff man didn’t exactly have to battle. He wisely flipped the ball out front and came up with a couple of easy pickups.
“I don’t know what came out of me, I just started winning them,” Mendicino said. “I was mostly winning them forward and trying to get fastbreak opportunities because that seemed to be working.”
Connor Healy eventually evened the game for STAB with just 2:22 to play and both defenses made stands from there to force overtime. Mendicino’s efforts and a Seth Wilson groundball led to another faceoff win for the Tigers, allowing them to call timeout once they’d secured possession.
“The play we actually designed we didn’t run so we just set up an open zone and I went into the middle,” Shea said.
That set the stage for Shea’s heroics as Hewell threaded a big-time feed into the teeth of the STAB defense.
It’s the first time that the Tigers’ senior class, highlighted by Tucker, a standout attackman, and goalie Ben Pugh, advanced beyond the opening round of the VISAA tournament. For three straight years, Woodberry’s season has ended on a Tuesday.
“It means a lot to them,” Mendicino said. “We haven’t been able to get out of the first round and we were finally able to break that streak.”
Shea finished the day with two goals and three assists, while Denver commitment Todd Fedyck carried the scoring load with four goals on the day. Will Tucker and James Hewell notched two goals and an assist each. Tiger Ripley’s goal rounded out the offense for the Tigers.
STAB got an incredible effort from Healy, who took advantage of the attention Woodberry’s defense focused on STAB’s electric scorers like Charlie Cory, Michael McCullough and Miles Davis and came up big with three goals on the afternoon. The Saints also got a Herculean effort in the cage from senior keeper Colin Bressan, who made several huge stops for STAB.
“We knew it’d be a tight game—you can tell we’re two really closely matched teams and (you’ve got) to give them a lot of credit for making plays down the stretch,” said STAB coach Bo Perriello.
Woodberry will face St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes in the VISAA semifinals Friday at 5 p.m. at Randolph Macon College.
“A lot of the credit goes to guys you won’t ever see on gameday,” said head coach Brian Hemming. “What we talked about was, ‘hey, we want to practice tomorrow.’ I think these guys love being around each other so much that’s what they want to do. They wanted to practice. I think that’s pretty cool.”
