Despite the teams’ sub .500 records coming into the game, both sides of the bleachers were packed Saturday for the 120th installment of The Game because when Woodberry Forest and archrival Episcopal lock up, nothing that has happened before in the season matters much at all. The only thing that matters is The Game, and this one came with a two-year wait.
A two-year wait where Woodberry Forest had to think about losing the last one. Apparently they’d waited long enough.
Thanks to a long catch and run by Landon Ellis, a go-ahead touchdown by Donovan Baker and a defensive stand all in the final minutes, on a chilly Saturday afternoon, the Tigers defeated the Maroon 20-17, Woodberry’s first win in the rivalry since 2016.
“This game means so much to this community,” said Woodberry coach Scott Braswell. It’s so nice for us to get the win, not just for our players who deserve it so much, but just the greater community. The students — you can see how much it means to us, and we’re as happy as can be.”
Woodberry came out of the gates on fire on both sides of the football, and were effective in moving the ball. Harley Shuford cashed in early to Tank Yaghoubi for a 4 yard touchdown. Running back Donovan Baker was also quite impressive with 80 yards rushing on the afternoon.
However, both teams had serious issues with ball security combining for six fumbles in the first half alone.
For Episcopal, quarterbacks Tahj Smith and Camren Boykin split the snaps on the day, and found ways to get in the redzone multiple times. Episcopal failed to convert a majority of the time, and went to the locker room for halftime up 10-6.
Tahj Smith in the third quarter started correcting his mistakes, and connected quite a few times with star wide receiver Jaiven Plummer. Plummer finished the game with 151 receiving yards on 12 receptions. Several of Plummer’s receptions seemed to come on the same route that the Woodberry cornerbacks simply couldn’t clamp down on.
Heading into the fourth quarter, Woodberry was getting great defensive stops and pushing the ball downfield. Shuford hit Landon Ellis on a 71-yard reception that put the Tigers in prime position to win the game.
“I just got into the open field and I saw Jaden (Ferguson) and I forget who was on the outside but I saw two good blocks in front of me,” Ellis said. “I was trying to get in the endzone and I didn’t make it but Don punched it in in the end.”
Riding that momentum, senior Donovan Baker ran in a 6-yard touchdown that held up as the gamewinner. The Woodberry defense held after that and Shuford and Ellis got to live out a scenario they’d talked about for a long time.
“We actually met in eighth grade at The Game, so it means a lot,” Ellis said. “We roomed together last year, we used to talk about it all the time and to finally put it into action is an indescribable feeling.”
