After wading through a back-and-forth start, Woodberry Forest saw its balance, depth and overall patience on offense pay dividends. The Tigers were dead locked with Blue Ridge through the first quarter and the early chunk of the second. However, dominance on the ground ball front and solid shot selection allowed Woodberry to uncork seven straight goals between the second and the third quarter to pave the way for an 11-7 win over the visiting Barons.
“Everyday we’ve gotten a little bit better executing our concepts,” said Woodberry coach Spotty Robbins. “(Distributing the ball around) is how we want to play all year. We don’t have a lot of guys who are All-State, All-Prep or All-American on offense. But we’ve got a lot of guys that can move the ball and move their feet, so we try to get as many contributions from as many guys as possible. That’s what we want to be.”
Robbie Grass, Lee Cozart and Keen Griffin led the attack for Woodberry in the 7-0 stretch that took a 4-4 game that was tight early on and suddenly put the Tigers way out in front heading into the fourth. With Woodberry’s defense forcing turnovers and winning ground balls, the offense, with a lot of help from Coleman Bishop’s passing, took over in a methodical way. The Tigers capitalized on one lengthy possession after another while also cashing in on penalties. Woodberry scored its 11 goals on just 17 shots.
“We definitely were trying to swing the ball around quickly, keep moving our feet,” Grass said. “We wanted their defense off balance and when we moved well it worked the whole game. We wanted our offense to run through, work on our dodges. Our passing and catching was just a lot better today than before. So I think we’re moving in the right direction.”
The Barons were able to keep pace in the first quarter and the beginning of the second thanks to a shared attack with Shane Ford, Brandon Goff and Tyler Ewen. However, with two key players out of the lineup for the visitors, including a captain, Woodberry’s overall depth caught up with the shortened Blue Ridge roster. After the Tigers big run, the Barons managed to put together their best quarter together in the fourth with Ford leading the way on a 4-0 run to close out the game, but there simply wasn’t enough clock to dig out of the hole from the previous two quarters.
“We were missing a few guys and you could really tell out there and Woodberry had horses and they just kept running them out there,” said Blue Ridge coach John Hetzel. “We needed to posses the ball on offense a little bit more and our defense got tired… the guys didn’t quit though, they played a lot minutes and I was proud of their effort.”
Grass led Woodberry with his three goals on just three shots. Bishop had a 4-point game with a goal and three assists. Griggin finished with two goals and an assists. Cozart had a pair of goals. Goalkeeper Holden Fockler had six saves on the day.
For Blue Ridge, Ford led all scorers with four goals. Goff finished with a pair of goals.
The Barons (2-2) travel to North Cross on Thursday while the Tigers (1-2) get a short break before hosting Bishop Ireton on March 29.
