Woodberry coach Brian Hemming is convinced that if you’re judging the Tigers just on their record — pretty good considering the difficulty of Woodberry’s schedule — you’re misjudging his squad.
That explains why when the Tigers put that development during practice into play with a huge 8-5 victory over St. Anne’s-Belfield, Hemming and Woodberry were hardly surprised.
“I think sometimes people that aren’t around the team and don’t see us in practice and don’t see us in film sessions, they come to the game and they just see a 48-minute snapshot of what we’ve been doing,” Hemming said. “But just like anything else, it takes time to build that continuity, that consistency and that ability to just play as a team.”
Woodberry (9-5) leaned on sophomore goalie Ben Pugh for the win as the young keeper, in conjunction with a seasoned, talented defense, helped limit the dynamic Saints to just five goals. While STAB struggled at times to put the ball on cage, that was largely because Woodberry’s defense moved seamlessly with Pugh directing traffic throughout the contest.
“Our slides seemed to come at the right time every time, we did great today sliding,” Pugh said. “And I was excited about that because sometimes we don’t do that very well. But our slide packages were just perfect today.”
Things appeared set to go STAB’s way when attackman Andrew Crockett buried a shot just 45 seconds into the proceedings, but Woodberry wasn’t rattled and the tide changed — fast.
“You had that first possession where you feel pretty good about things and then it’s really all down hill from there on the offensive end,” said STAB coach Bo Perriello. “We just lost the possession time game and we knew that would be big today.”
Woodberry’s David Little started a 6-0 run that stretched from midway through the first quarter until early in the third with a finish off a Joe Miller feed. Little then buried a second goal for a 2-1 lead Woodberry never relinquished off a Carlson Milikin pass.
“When I’m in trouble that’s my go-to guy I kind of look to him,” Milikin said. “He’s a great finisher and a great feeder.”
Milikin scored a goal of his own shortly after Little’s second tally and Miller put the Tigers up 5-1 early in the second quarter, a lead Woodberry held onto until the break. Will Tucker then got in on the action in the third quarter, scoring just 30 seconds into the half on a Miller assist. After Milkin and Tripp Grant scored later in the third, Woodberry held an 8-3 lead. STAB (9-7) started to string together a rally with Nicco Freeo and Crockett scoring a pair of goals to cut the lead to 8-5, but with Pugh on lock down, that was as close as STAB could get.
Woodberry hits the road to take on Benedictine Tuesday while STAB faces another difficult road test against Collegiate Friday at 5 p.m.
