It’s pretty easy to tell things are going well for Woodberry Forest when a close defender scores a pair of fastbreak goals in just the first quarter. Vance Spilman came up with two in the opening frame Tuesday as Woodberry rolled to a 15-4 road victory over Western Albemarle.
The win served as a critical bounce back for Woodberry after falling to Blue Ridge last week.
“This was the first time we’ve been on the field in three days just because of the weather,” said Woodberry coach Brian Hemming. “What we did yesterday is just watch film (of the Blue Ridge game). This time in the season, a lot of teams are still finding their legs and still figuring things out and we’re one of those teams.”
The Tigers’ offense also got going in a big way too, with Will Tucker returning to the lineup after missing last week’s Blue Ridge game because of a Jefferson Scholarship interview at UVa. Tucker poured in four goals, helping close the door on the Warriors with three of those coming after the break.
Todd Fedyck notched a hat trick too and connected with James Hewell for the first goal of the game. Hewell finished with two goals and an assist. Doug Randolph also got in on the act with back-to-back goals during the big second quarter run that turned a 3-2 contest into an 8-2 halftime lead for the Tigers.
“With how things are done now with the new NCAA rules with the quick restarts, We work every day with our defensemen on handling the ball, shooting and ground balls,” Hemming said. “You can see that when there’s a loose ball — they’re comfortable carrying the ball.”
Woodberry took the attack to the young Warriors, taking 37 shots to the Warriors’ 17. The Tigers also dominated on ground balls with 56 pickups to Western’s 32.
Western falls to 0-3 against a challenging schedule that’s included matchups with E.C. Glass, Salem and now the Tigers.
“That’s a team that’s built and a good team like that will show you what you don’t do well,” said first year Western coach Alex Whitten. “My challenge to our guys was we either choose to quit or we buckle the chin strap up a little bit tighter and get after it. It’s just a learning process with a new coach, new program and new staff … it’s a whole lot of new.”
Sumner Corbett’s two goals and an assist led the Warriors in scoring while Dylan Curry had a goal and two assists. Amos Atwell also finished with a goal.
Woodberry hosts Paul VI at 4:30 p.m. Thursday while Western Albemarle will try and bounce back against Covenant Thursday night at 7:15 p.m.
