2013 Season Preview

Feb. 28, 2013

Read About the Upcoming 2013 Season

The JF Webb Warriors enter their 4th season as a team, taking the field for the first time tomorrow night against Northwood High School at 6:30 under the lights at Warrior Field.  The 2013 team is fresh off a campaign that found them sitting at 8-9 overall, with a 4-4 record and 3rd place finish in conference play.  In addition to this, the Warriors had five players named All Conference selections (four First Teamers, one Honorable Mention), and had its first ever All Region and All State selection.  The Warriors return 17 players from 2012 that either saw consistent Varsity action or some Varsity action.

Attack

After graduating their leading scorer from a year ago and the school's leader in many offensive catagories, Matt Roach (24 G, 5A), the Warriors look for some new faces to pick up where he left off.  Returning at attack are senior All Conference Honorable Mention nominee Antonio Jones, senior Jon Greene, and junior Brock Fuller.  While Greene sat out with an injury last year, Jones and Fuller scored 16 goals and 10 assists between the two of them (Jones: 12G 2A; Fuller: 4G 8A) in their first years as Varsity starters.  Added to the fold this year will be freshman Ben Branch, the only freshman to make the Varsity squad and the first to do so since the 2010 season, when Webb had its first team (no freshman since then has seen consistent Varsity game action).  With the experience gained from last year and the addition of new faces, the Warrior attackers look to do some damage this season.

Midfield

It is rare to include a defensive player in an offensive discussion, but when discussing returning goal scorers, senior LSM Rufus Terry is to be included after leading the team in points last year (23G 8A).  Adding to the transition threat Terry brings to the field, classmates Teddy Anderson (2G 8A) and Jacob Ragland (13G 1A) along with sophomore Luke Hunt bring extra offensive firepower.  Seniors Joseph Toto and Mack Lyon (1G) were used primarily in defensive situations for most of their careers, but figure to add to the offensive game more often this year, while first year senior Bobby Faulkner and junior Antonio Bowden will add depth to round out the midfield group.

At the face-off game, the Warriors return their leading face-off man from last year, junior Cameron Blanchard (115-194; 59.3%).  The Warriors as a team won 50.2% of their face-offs (132-263), with Blanchard winning all but 17 of those.  A strong willed bruiser at the face-off X, he will look to add to his win totals from last year.

Defense

Arguably always the strongest part of the team, the defense brings back all three close defensive starters, both goalies, and both LSMs, with three All Conference 1st Team Selections, one All Region 2nd Team selection, and the All State 2nd Team Long Stick Midfielder.

At LSM, Terry will make his presence felt after posting 153 ground balls and 71 caused turnovers last year, paving the way for his spot atop the All Conference, All Region, and All State listings.  Senior Omari Powell (18GB 5CT) returns after performing exceptionally at both LSM and defensive midfielder.  Backing up these two four year players will be sophomore Luke Wheeless, one of the few players to receive playing time on Varsity last year as a freshman (Hunt was the other).

At close defense, the unit is led by All Conferece 1st Teamer Cedric Spence (40GB 34CT), with classmate Justin Wilbanks and junior Zach Watkins filling the other three spots.  These three helped form a defense that ranked in the top half of all teams in the state in goals allowed last year and, with their first full year of playing together squared away, will hope to continue to build on the years of steady improvement on the defensive half of the field.

In goal, the Warriors return two goalies who combined to stop 70.1% of their shots last year.  Senior Christian Tilley, the starter since the team's inception in every game except for three, earned All Conference 1st team honors last year after making 265 saves, stopping 70.3% of his shots, and posting a 6.892 goals against average.  His back-up, senior Reggie Campos, proved himself a quality goalie himself after stepping up in one of the biggest games of the year: with Tilley out sick against Riverside, Campos filled the shoes of the three year netminder and effectively neutralized the Riverside offense single handidly for much of the game.  He finished the year with 17 saves and stopping 68% of his shots; 15 of those saves came against Riverside in just 30 minutes of action.

The Warriors kick off their season tomorrow night against the Chargers of Northwood at 6:30 pm.  Please come and support your Black and Red and help make this 4th season the best we've had yet.