Point to any area of the game and Woodberry Forest scored points. While the Tigers’ offense looked the best it has all year, scoring four touchdowns on a pair of short runs and a pair of big passing plays, they weren’t the only ones.
Against Collegiate on the road, Woodberry also returned a punt and an interception for a touchdown to cruise to a 42-0 win. At the end of the day, it really didn’t matter how the Tigers got the points, because its defense, facing a true spread offense, was as stout as it gets.
“I was really confident in the defensive scheme we were going to run and then Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we looked terrible in practice and I mean our scout team was killing us,” said Woodberry coach Clint Alexander. “We watched the film together on the bus ride down and I think they got it. We had to see it again. I was excited about what we did. It’s nice when you when you force things, make it feel like you made it happen. We’ve got a lot of good kids on defense.”
Both teams started out a bit slow and sloppy offensively, but the Tigers maintained solid field position. After CJ Prosise returned a punt 68 yards for a touchdown, his fourth special teams touchdown in five games, it was all Woodberry for the rest of the day. On the return, Prosise started out at a jog, patiently waiting for the right moment to round the corner and when he did, nobody could catch him.
“I caught the ball and figured I had time to wait for the coverage to set up,” Prosise said. “When I saw the left side open up, I took the ball and ran hard.”
To start the second half, Prosise nearly made a fifth touchdown return on a ball kicked away from him, but a cross field lateral pass put the ball in his hands and only a close tackle on the right side of the field kept him from the endzone.
“It’s tough to find a way to get touches when a team wants to kick away from you,” Prosise said. “But that’s fine, we’ll find a way to make it happen.”
Much like the previous week against Paul VI, Woodberry was balanced on offense as Christian Asher and Hunter Faulconer were able to move the chains for the second straight week, piling up 83 yards and two touchdowns on the grond between them.
“Our pace has been a lot better by keeping the opponents off balance and moving quickly,” said offensive coordinator Ryan Alexander. “The last last two weeks we’ve been running the ball and that’s the biggest difference. We went from say 30 yards a game to 200 last week and over 100 this week.”
The Tigers turned a Greer Martini interception into seven points when Faulconer capped a short drive with a 1-yard touchdown run.
Playing against his former team, Doug Randolph was the next Tiger to cash in as quarterback Heys McMath hit the receiver mid-stride for a 49-yard scoring reception to make it 21-0 for the Tigers just before halftime.
“It felt pretty good to do that on this field,” Randolph said. “I came off on the play and saw a break in coverage. Heys threw me a perfect pass. Really, it was all Heys and the offensive line. All I did was catch it and ran a bit. It was nice to do that here. We’ve got a lot more confidence on offense right now. Everything is just flowing better and feeling better.”
McMath was on point all afternoon. The junior had 225 yards in the air, two touchdown strikes and a rushing score. To begin the third, McMath capped a drive himself with a 5-yard keeper, then two minutes later, hit Reid Swearingen on a 30-yard touchdown pass to make it 35-0.
Up comfortably and with the defense still dialed in from the opening snap, the Tigers preserved their shutout and fittingly put the last seven points on the board thanks to a play on defense when Will Tucker came down with an inteception and flew down the right sideline for a 70-yard return.
Woodberry (3-2, 1-0 Prep League) hosts Landon on October 15 at 2 p.m.
Rainey reunites with the Tigers
Alexander got word just before the game that Jacob Rainey, the standout junior quarterback who lost his right leg after complications from a horrific injury in a scrimmage a little over a month ago, would be meeting up with the team at Collegiate. For the coach and his players, having Rainey back was an emotional event.
“I found out he was going to be here at 11 o’clock today and I was just so excited,” Alexander said. “I didn’t want to tell the team at first, I was going to keep it a surprise but wife was telling me, “Look you better tell them now so they’re aren’t knocking into him and bumping him and swarming him. So I told them and asked them to please not blow the pregame (preperation). When he came in, we stopped everything and were all so happy to see him.”
Rainey was released from the hospital last week and is still recovering and undergoing rehabilitation. While nobody on the team can forget about what happened to the junior, just having him on sidelines mixing it up with his classmates and watching the game meant a lot.
“It feels like we’re a family again,” Alexander said. “When I got that call (that Rainey was coming), I can’t tell you how happy and relieved I was. I knew how the team was going to react. I thought this all was pretty special.”
