Woodstock
Some gridiron teams have rushing games. Woodstock High is in a rush to rush. Wasting little time with opportunity on Friday night, the Wasps scored seven touchdowns on possessions ranging from 30 seconds to a shade more than two minutes, rolling to a 50-13 rout of Poultney at James T. McLaughlin Field.
The victory firmly establishes Woodstock (6-0) as the team to beat in VPA Division III. Poultney (4-2) entered with the best resume to date as far as rivals were concerned, but like everyone else before them, the Blue Devils became just another speed bump smoothed out by a green-and-white steamroller.
The Wasps ran for 380 yards on the night. And they did it very quickly.
“We’re fast; we’re really fast,” Woodstock coach Ramsey Worrell admitted. “I’ve known that. It’s funny; before the game, I’m preaching this was going to be a first-down kind of game. We’re going to have to ground and pound, get first downs, go on drives. And then we come out and score quick.”
Several times over, in fact.
Poultney — which lost starting quarterback Levi Allen to a season-ending knee injury against D-II Fair Haven last week — will have at least two weeks to figure out an alternative strategy for slowing Woodstock. The Blue Devils had limited offensive options against the Wasps and even fewer answers to Woodstock’s stable of zippy backs.
“We’ve had some injuries, and that’s kind of taken its toll on us,” veteran Poultney coach Dave Capman said. “And we’ve had two good teams back to back. Fair Haven’s good, and Woodstock’s good. Their speed bothered us; they were a little bit quicker than we were.”
Woodstock speed demon Ben Marsicovetere put the hosts on the scoreboard first, dashing 16 yards for the Wasps’ opening touchdown just 4½ minutes into the contest, with a Trevor White conversion pass finding a wide-open Micah Schlabach for an 8-0 lead. The Wasps needed a comparatively slow 124 seconds to march 46 yards for the points. On a chilly night, Woodstock was just warming up — and speeding up.
Fullback Caden White doubled the advantage with 1:44 left in the opening quarter, scoring from the 8. Marsicovetere’s conversion run made it 16-0, capping an 86-second possession covering 39 yards.
“The game plan was scrapped pretty quick when we could see we could do a lot of things,” Worrell said.
Schlabach raced 48 yards — stopped only by Poultney safety Grant Schreiber’s saving tackle — to start another 86-second drive. This one, covering 65 yards, ended on Jed Astbury’s 4-yard run and a Trevor White conversion toss to Gage Lory for a 24-0 cushion with 4:32 left in the half.
The Devils’ Jacob Allen (22 carries, 107 yards) took advantage of a fumbled Woodstock punt return to complete a 24-yard catch-and-run connection with quarterback Caden Capman with 1:08 until halftime. The Wasps needed all of a half-minute to respond for a 30-7 lead at the break thanks to a 35-yard Marsicovetere sprint to the end zone.
“Field position’s huge,” Worrell said. “We preach it: special teams, special teams, special teams. We want to get a short field, and we want to give them a long field. It’s something we spend a lot of time on in practice, and we work hard at it.”
Caden White (31-yard run), Astbury (7-yard swing screen pass from Trevor White) and Dan Lessard (51-yard run) upped the Wasps’ lead to 50-7 before the third quarter closed.
Reflecting Woodstock’s versatility and backfield depth, Caden White led the Wasps with 78 yards on 11 carries, Schlabach contributed another 78 on just three runs and Marsicovetere added 70 on five attempts, all in the first half.
Woodstock has won all of its football contests by as few as three touchdowns and as many as … well, a lot. With their quickness and depth, the Wasps are going to be hard to catch as the D-III playoffs approach.
Be careful. Blink and you’ll miss them.
Audibles: Schreiber scored on an 8-yard run in the fourth period for the visitors. … Marsicovetere left the contest early in the third quarter with a calf cramp and didn’t return. “How can you cramp in this weather?” Worrell asked the senior. … Caden Capman is the Poultney coach’s grandson. The junior returned to action after sustaining an ankle injury three weeks ago. … Woodstock has next week off, the result of Mount St. Joseph dropping its football program last week. Poultney heads to Oxbow next Saturday.
Greg Fennell can be reached at gfennell@vnews.com or 603-727-3226.