WINDSOR — There was a strange feeling to the Woodstock at Windsor football game on Saturday. For years these two teams have met for the regular-season finale. For years there was usually the Division III championship game on the line.
Not this time.
While Windsor won, 32-0, there was no extreme jubilation at the victory. It was expected, as Woodstock is having the type of cycle season that every team goes through. Low numbers and injuries caused the Wasps to forfeit a game and go undermanned in others along the way to an 0-8 season.
Still it was a chin-up coach Ramsey Worrell that expressed no remorse for the Wasps effort.
“Listen, this is a great group of kids who performed to the best of their ability,” he said. “We improved all year, and I think we improved today. It’s never fun to lose, but when you do the best you can, you can’t ask for anything more.”
Because Division III is an open tournament, the Wasps have the dubious distinction of traveling to top-seeded BFA-Fairfax this coming weekend.
“That’s a long ride,” Worrell said.
After the game the Windsor fans were checking their phones for the result of the Mill River-Oxbow game. Mill River won, which puts 3-5 Windsor in a playoff game at Otter Valley, a team the Jacks beat during the regular season.
While the game may have lacked drama, it was played on a picturesque, cloud-free, warm fall day that would have sent Norman Rockwell looking for his easel.
“We took care of business,” is the way Greg Balch described his team’s effort on a day that he said felt funny.
“It was just a different atmosphere this time,” he said. “It was just kind of casual. We played pretty well in the first half (24-0), but the second half was just kind of a ho-hum affair.”
Windsor came out of the game pretty much injury free with the possible exception of two-way end Ben Lockwood.
“I think he’s going to be OK,” said Balch, who like Worrell has had championship teams and teams that were a long way from champions. “I think it’s harder coaching those talented teams. You’re always worried about screwing up when you have all those good players.”
Windsor scored on its first three possessions. Taking the opening kickoff, the Jacks marched 61 yards in 13 plays with quarterback Max Clifford taking it in from the one. Then it was Ben Gilbert on a cut-back run from the 13 for the second score, and Connor Hart capped off the first half scoring with a blast from in close.
Woodstock’s best chance to get on the scoreboard came in the third quarter when the Wasps drove to the Windsor 13 but fell short during a fourth-down run.
The only scoring in the second half was a Hart gallop from the 13 in the fourth quarter.