WOODBRIDGE TRACI JOHNSON FOLLOWS HIS BLOCKERS FOR A TOUCHDOWN, PHOTO COURTESY OF BEN FULTON
GREENWOOD – The Woodbridge community honored former assistant coach Preston Grace with a halftime tribute.
Grace died January.
Fans would say that the Blue Raiders honored him in both halves of the game by defeating the Milford Buccaneers 52-30 in a Class AA District 3 victory.
Traci Johnson scored four touchdowns and rushed for 255 yards on 32 carries to lead the Blue Raiders.
“It was a team effort, shoutout to my offensive line for blocking for me to get those touchdowns tonight,” Johnson said.
Johnson scored on an 11 yard run midway through the first quarter, which was set up by a 40 yard pass from Zach Plummer to Johnson on a third and ten. Johnson then ran in the conversion to put Woodbridge up 8-0.
The Bucs drove deep into Woodbridge territory on their next possession, but the drive stalled when Milford came up a yard short on a fourth and 21 pass from John Hudson to Charles Shorts.
On the fourth play of the ensuing Woodbridge drive Tyler Ely broke a couple of tackles then raced 50 yards for a touchdown. Johnson’s conversion run extended the Woodbridge lead to 16-0 early in the second quarter.
It took just 11 seconds for the Blue Raiders to strike again when on the ensuing kickoff Kam’Ren Johnson stripped the ball from Benjamin Guscoria as he was falling to the ground, Johnson then returned the ball 40 yards for a touchdown. Traci Johnson’s conversion run was good, giving Woodbridge a 24-0 lead.
“We had two big special teams plays tonight with Kam’Ren’s score and the kick return by Ji’Kare. We have put emphasis a couple of weeks ago about being better on special teams and it showed up tonight,” Woodbridge head coach Marvin Dooley said.
Milford answered quickly with their first score of the game after a pair of 20 yard runs by Shorts and Den’Nare Horsey, Horsey then scored on a one yard run. The conversion attempt failed as Milford cut the Woodbridge lead to 24-6 with 10:11 left to play in the first half.
The Blue Raiders kept their foot on the gas scoring again when Ji’Kare Banks returned the ensuing kickoff 86 yards for a touchdown. The conversion failed as the Blue Raiders led 30-6.
Milford again answered quickly with a score of their own when Hudson connected with Wilderson Alexandre on a 47 yard touchdown pass. Shorts ran in the conversion to make the score 30-14. Johnson would add a five yard touchdown run for Woodbridge just before the half giving them a 36-14 lead at halftime.
The teams would trade touchdowns in the second half. Hudson threw an eight yard touchdown pass to Horsey and then later scored himself on a one yard run.
Horsey was equally as impressive for the Bucs totalling 136 yards on 15 carries scoring a pair of touchdowns. Shorts had nine carries for 68 yards.
Johnson added touchdown runs of 23 yards and 48 yards giving Woodbridge the 52-30 win.
Milford dropped to 4-2 overall and 0-1 in District 3 with the loss. The Bucs will host Laurel Friday, October 20. Kickoff at 7:00 PM.
With the win Woodbridge improved to 5-1 overall and 2-0 in District 3. The Blue Raiders will head to Alapocas to take on Wilmington Friends on Saturday, October 21 with kickoff at 2:00 PM. After that Woodbridge faces the rest of their Class AA District 3 schedule.
“We have Lake Forest, Sussex Tech and Delmar to play in our district. We could win all of them and we could lose all of them. That’s just how good the teams are in this district,” Dooley said.
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