It was the perfect finish for Woodberry’s seniors because it erased one bad memory and replaced it with a flawless one.
“After last week at FUMA it kind of left a bad taste in our mouth,” said junior linebacker Greer Martini. “This is great — the seniors won’t ever remember FUMA. They’ll remember this.”
The Tigers romped Saturday in their 112th meeting with archrival Episcopal, rolling 44-14 with a dominant performance that started from the opening kick and didn’t slow down until a couple of blocked punts in the fourth quarter allowed Episcopal to get on the board. It was the Tigers’ fifth-straight victory over the Maroon.
“The score speaks for itself, we just kept the ball rolling,” said senior quarterback Jacob Rainey. “It was just awesome…awesome.”
Rainey oversaw three straight touchdown drives in the first half, going 3 for 6 on those drives for 66 yards and a touchdown, highlighted by the scoring toss to Christian Asher and a deep ball to Nate Ingram. The senior quarterback seemed to come full circle from the brutal injury a little more than 15 months ago.
“I was tentative all year to play him — I’m sure he wanted to play more — but I wanted to give him this,” Alexander said. “This is the best stage we can give him. Everybody needed to see him overcoming all that adversity — two years of it — to make it all right today. It was so special.”
It helped Rainey that the run game got going in a big way early behind sophomore H.T. Minor, who piled up 118 yards and a touchdown on 12 touches for the Tigers. Sam Miller and James Hewell also had a touchdown each, with Miller scoring on his only touch. Minor averaged 9.8 yards per touch.
“He’s special,” Alexander said. “The coaches in our league were pretty shocked to find out he’s a sophomore.”
When Hunter Etheridge took over for Rainey, the offense didn’t really miss a beat, as Etheridge went 3 for 6 for two touchdowns.
It was the defense though that set the tone for Woodberry, holding Episcopal to just 221 yards of total offense, most of it by running back Nigel Beckford who rolled up 130 yards and a late touchdown on 25 carries. The Tigers also had a pair of picks, both by lacrosse standouts with Ben Pugh snagging the first pick and Will Tucker coming down with the second.
The Maroon simply didn’t have an answer for Doug Randolph up front as the Notre Dame-bound defender made play after play. Several times Randolph forced Beckford or Episcopal quarterback Timmy Phillips into the waiting arms of linebacker Greer Martini or another defender.
“He just outmatched that offensive line and just did his thing,” Martini said. “He just opens up plays and makes plays.”
The victory ensured that the Tigers’ seniors finish an incredible four-year span on a high note. Woodberry not only beat Episcopal all four years during that span, but posted a fantastic 34-8 record against an increasingly difficult schedule.
“We talk a lot about making sure that the underclassmen have to understand how big this is for the seniors because they’re going to remember this forever,” Alexander said. “At our senior goodbyes, a lot of young guys asked to get up and thank individual seniors for how much they taught them and how much they helped them. That’s something we haven’t done before, but that was pretty powerful.”
Saturday those underclassmen gave a little back and now the departing Tigers have the exact ending they wanted.
