Woodberry Forest stumbled early Thursday, but the Tigers unleashed a monster run in the second quarter against Christchurch and never looked back. Woodberry rolled to a 17-8 win over the defending VISAA Division II state champions.
Woodberry fell behind 3-1 in the first quarter, but by halftime the Tigers were up 7-4 thanks to two from Josh Trudgeon and a pair from Carlson Milikin. Mark Monroe and David Little rounded out the 6-1 run that put the Tigers in control.
“Lacrosse is a game of runs and I think our guys are still learning that teams are going to come out gunning for us,” said Woodberry coach Brian Hemming. “That’s just kind of the way it is, but a lot of credit goes to Christchurch, they’re well coached and they’ve got some lacrosse players and some athletes.”
A big reason for that run was Dow Perkins’ work on faceoffs. The junior won 13 of 19 faceoffs he battled for, helping the Tigers maintain possession and string together critical goals. His dominance at midfield helped Milkin and Little pile up four goals each while Monroe finished with a hat trick of his own.
While the upperclassmen did most of the finishing, Woodberry is relying largely on young faces at attack beyond Monroe, who also had two assists. Hatcher Williams and Griffin Burke graduated, which allowed some new faces like Little and Will Tucker to move into the lineup. Against Christchurch, that offensive group helped move the ball well, leading to assists on 14 of the Tigers 17 goals, an impressive feat considering the unit’s lack of playing time together.
“We’ve got a lot of chemistry on that unit right now,” Monroe said. “And not just our starting three, but the two guys who come in after them. We’ve got a lot of strength in the midfield that helps our attack out a lot, like Carlson Milikin drawing a (longstick defender) and an early slide.”
Christchurch allowed big offensive numbers by two Central Virginia squads thus far this year now, surrendering 20 goals to Blue Ridge just a couple of weeks ago. But if Woodberry can keep that offensive flow going in the next three games, all on the road, the Tigers should be in good position when Collegiate and Episcopal come calling in home games in mid-April.
Defensively, the Tigers settled in after the early three-goal outburst by Christchurch with Charlie Archer holding Christchurch standout Pat Young largely in check when he was marking him. Archer was picking up the junior star, a second team All-State wideout in Division 2 during football for the Seahorses, after transition, but Woodberry eventually attached Archer at the midfield line to Young, which helped disrupt a talented Christchurch offense.
Woodberry keeper Ben Pugh finished with seven saves on the night.
