Maybe the first half of the first quarter belonged to Norfolk Academy, but once Woodberry Forest got on the board and got Dow Perkins rolling on faceoffs, the Tigers poured it on for the next three and a half. Four unanswered goals gave Woodberry the lead. Netting 10 of the next 11 goals gave the Tigers more than enough room to breathe. In the second half? Woodberry refused to budge and as such cruised to an impressive 14-6 win over Norfolk Academy heading into the Easter weekend break.
“From here on out, big Tuesdays set up even bigger Fridays,” said Woodberry coach Brian Hemming. “Our guys get excited by playing a great team like Norfolk that’s coached by a great coach in Tom Duquette. He’s an institution, and won a national title with UVa. We challenged our guys telling them that teams are going to be excited to play us, so we had better excited to play them.”
Will Tucker and David Little scored the Tigers first three goals, all of them coming in the latter half of the quarter. The duo kept going and saw Sam Russell get into the mix the second. Each of Woodberry’s first six scores were assisted.
“Once we settled down and worked the ball around we just kind of found our groove,” Little said. “Ninety percent of goals have been assisted according (to our coaching staff) which is pretty ridiculous when you consider how many goals we’ve scored so far. I think that shows how unselfish of a team we have right now. I think that defines us so far.”
One Woodberry goal resulted in another Woodberry possession with Perkins winning 15 of the 21 facoffs. Carlson Milkin got hot in the second half, as if the Tigers weren’t already rolling. As such, Woodberry managed to get up 12-3 late in the third, despite playing three minutes without Milikin after his stick was seized by officials.
“We go through that penalty without giving up a goal, coaches are yelling and its crazy, but you look on the field and our guys were just playing,” Hemming said. “From a coaching standpoint that’s great to see. Guys are ready to stand up and get the job done.”
While Norfolk fought back in the fourth, there was no chewing into the massive deficit as the Tigers defense dealt with an aggressive attack.
“A few times we got beat top-side but we fixed that,” said Woodberry goalkeeper Ben Pugh. “We just played good fundamental defense forcing them out top-side. Our man-down (defense) was huge today. We had to kill the 3-minute penalty and man-down, we’ve been a little weak. That was big getting through that. We moved around more, talked off-ball and called out the picks behind and in front of the goal. We were just playing as a team.”
Tucker, Little and Milikin all had hat tricks on the evening, with Tucker piling up four goals and two assists and Little and Milikin scoring three times and contributing an assist each. James Hewell also had a big day with a 6-point performance on two goals and four assists. Pugh had seven saves.
Woodberry (8-1) travels to Middleburg Academy on Tuesday before heading out to Collegiate on Friday.
