Spider InSight: Notes, Quotes & Anecdotes; Woodson On Scully
09/28/2016 | Baseball, Field Hockey, Football, General, Women's Soccer
Notes, quotes and anecdotes from this past Spider sports weekend on campus – busiest of the fall semester with four events in the span of less than 48 hours from Friday to Sunday. And, baseball coach Tracy Woodson, a former Los Angeles Dodger, reflects on legendary broadcaster Vin Scully.
FOOTBALL
The heroes of the Spiders' highlight-filled 38-31 football victory over Colgate at Robins Stadium have been deservedly well-documented: Brian Brown's receiving yards record performance, freshman Xavier Goodall's 127 yards rushing and Tafon Mainsah's two interceptions, including the game clincher with 44 seconds to go.
Here are some observations and other highlights from the broadcast booth, with quotes from the Spider Sportsline Tuesday at Outback, in case you missed it.
The most important drive of the season so far was the 11-play, 96-yard march just before halftime that tied the score at 17-17. It followed a three-and-out by the defense, igniting a third quarter performance by the Spiders that Head Coach Danny Rocco called “the most dominant stretch of football I've been a part of since being a head football coach.”
In a period of nine possessions – five for Colgate; four for Richmond – the Spiders ran 30 plays for 300 yards and scored four touchdowns. The defense suffocated the Raiders' offense, limiting them to 20 plays for 37 yards, one first down, with three series of three plays and punt, and an interception.
“That was a really good snapshot of where our standards need to be,” said Rocco to the gathering at Outback and the radio audience, “because that was a good-looking football team for that stretch of time.”
The biggest non-scoring play of the game came on that drive just before halftime. The Spiders faced 3rd and 17 at the Colgate 33. Kyle Lauletta and Tyler Wilkins connected for 18 yards. Two plays later the Spiders scored. Not too many options in the play book for 3rd & 18, but Lauletta threw a great ball and Wilkins – a rising star – ran a great route and made a terrific catch.
The touchdown reception on that drive came from another up and coming receiver – Jarmal Bevels – with a defender illegally draped all over him. The efforts of the two sophomore receivers was noticed by Brian Brown at the radio show.
“Everybody on the team has seen Tyler develop. I noticed him his first summer because he's from L.C. Bird – one of my rival high schools, said Brown, who's from Hermitage High School. “I noticed in the summer how much of a playmaker he is. He's an excellent route runner, he's got great hands, and he's aggressive at the point of attack. He's going to be a great player for us for the next couple years to come.
“Bevels is a completely different style of player. He's a bigger guy who can go up and get the ball. He's a great athlete and a great guy to be around. The sky's the limit for him, as well."
Once Lauletta got going Saturday, the sky was his limit, too. Kyle completed his last three passes of the first half and all nine in the second half. That's 12-12 for 197 yards and three touchdowns. Go back to the drive before half and he was 16-17. Not sure that's gotten much attention.
Likewise for Winston Craig's performance – aside from his appearance on this week's radio show. Stats do lie. The senior captain was only credited for two tackles, half a tackle for loss and a quarterback hurry. But as my TV partner Lane Casadonte said to our CSN+ audience, “Winston has been in the backfield more today than most (of the) running backs.”
On the radio show, Craig said, “I try to not look at the stats. You've just got to do your job. A sack is one of the best feelings ever. When you get one, you want more. But as long as we get the ball back to the offense and let Brian break records, I think we'll be alright, “ Craig deadpanned, looking at Brown across the table and sharing a laugh with him.
And lastly, a week ago we had senior fullback James Pavik on the radio show after he carried the ball for the first two times in his career at the end of the Norfolk State game. Against Colgate, in a much closer game, he had another carry, for five yards, and a key 17-yard catch and run on 3rd & 7 late in the game. Our SpiderTV cameras had great shots of Lauletta cheering on Pavik as he ran for that first down – another of the many key plays in the Spider victory.
SOCCER
The sports weekend started with an appearance from one of the highest-ranked opponents to play on the Robins Stadium turf. West Virginia's women's soccer team was ranked No. 4 when it played the Spiders last Friday night. The Mountaineers were ranked No. 1 the week before the match with Richmond, but dropped a 1-0 overtime decision to then-No. 9 Georgetown Sunday.
WVU looked every bit a top five team, scoring a 4-1 triumph over the scrappy Spiders. The win gave the Mountaineers a measure of revenge – at least in the history book and to the head coaches. Remarkably, both the Spiders' Peter Albright and WVU's Nikki Izzo-Brown are the only coaches in each school's 21 year programs that started in 1996.
Just five years later in 2000, they were on the sideline for each program's first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance when the Spiders and Mountaineers met at old First Market Stadium.
Standing on the turf at what is now Robins Stadium the morning of last Friday's match with WVU, Coach Albright reminisced about that historic 5-1 Spider win. “I remember walking off the field at halftime and Coach Brown was walking off, too. She looked over at me and said 'what just happened out there?' And I replied, 'I have absolutely no idea!' We had a great crowd – that old concrete grandstand was packed. It was a great atmosphere and obviously a great win for us.”
The Spiders are 5-3-1 entering Atlantic 10 conference play at Duquesne Thursday and home with UMass Sunday.
FIELD HOCKEY
The Spider field hockey team opened A-10 conference play this past weekend, defeating Davidson, 3-1, and dropping a gut-wrenching 2-1 decision to Lock Haven Sunday. I didn't make it to Sunday's game, but I did watch on SpiderTV (special shout out to director Blake Ellett, videographer Rick Stoss and play-by-play man Robert Fish, all working their fourth event of the weekend). The game went through two 15 minute overtimes and was decided by a shoot-out.
Admittedly, those shoot outs are gripping drama and they do give us something other than a dreaded tie. But as I watched it unfold on SpiderTV, couldn't help but wonder if there isn't a better way to decide the outcome of a team sport than with all the focus on two individuals – an offensive player and a goalkeeper. Other sports use the shoot-out as well, so there must be something to it. Just a thought, and maybe a future Spider InSight conversation with field hockey Coach Gina Lucido.
SPIDERTV
It was also a busy weekend for our SpiderTV team. For the first time in program history, a women's soccer match was televised live locally, airing on WTVR's digital channel 6.3. SpiderTV also produced the football game for Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic.
At halftime of each telecast, we aired a pre-produced feature on a Spider student-athlete. Happy to report it appears we're the opposite of the Sports Illustrated cover jinx.
Friday night's focus was on Meaghan Carrigan's triumphant return from not one, but two, major knee injuries and surgeries. The lone Spider goal against West Virginia was scored by Meaghan Carrigan.
Saturday's football feature focused on junior defensive back Tafon Mainsah, who only began playing the sport as a junior in high school – he was a soccer standout before that. Tafon made us look good again, with the two interceptions in the win over Colgate.
WOODSON ON SCULLY
On April 13, 1987, 24-year-old rookie Tracy Woodson of the Los Angeles Dodgers hit his first major league home run, a two-run shot in the bottom of the second inning of a game at Dodger Stadium against the Houston Astros. He hit it off future Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan. And that wasn't the only headline.
“(Vin Scully) called my first big league home run against Nolan Ryan,” said Woodson proudly during a media session Wednesday in the Robins Center. “I got a cassette tape the next day of the call. I wish I had it now. I have no idea where it's at.
“But I can still hear him calling it today. He had all the information on me. And right after he said one sentence you can hear the crack of the bat in the background.
“My first experience with him when I got to the big leagues, we had a day game in San Diego. When we got back to the hotel, we went to the restaurant and he said, 'Hey Tracy, come have a sandwich with me.' And he paid for it. That was beautiful. But he wanted to get to know me and have as much information about me as he could. He's the best at telling stories and he want as much information as he could get.”
Woodson, entering his fourth season as the Spiders' head baseball coach, was on the Dodger 
team in 1988 when an injured, hobbling Kirk Gibson heroically appeared out of the dugout in the bottom of the ninth of Game One of the World Series, with L.A. trailing Oakland 4-3. Gibson dramatically delivered a pinch-hit, game-winning home run, considered by many to be Scully's greatest call.
“Listening to it and watching it I still get chill bumps. He tells it exactly like it was. Gibson wasn't out there for introductions. He'd already been in a World Series. Vin knew Gibson was in the back. He basically set the inning up, Gibson shows up, he's telling it all. His facts – he's right on.”
After making the call, Scully remained silent for an extraordinary one minute and seven seconds, letting the crowd and video tell the story. Then he summed it up as only Scully could do. “In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened!”
After 67 seasons, Scully will retire with Sunday's regular season finale in San Francisco. Woodson, like many, wishes Scully would reconsider and call the Dodger playoff games. But he understands.
“I'm disappointed. But he's getting all these accolades and he doesn't want it to be a factor for the Dodgers if they make a run. People on the East Coast don't realize how heated the rivalry is between the Dodgers and Giants, so it's great he's calling his last game there.
“As good of a broadcaster as he is, he's that good of a person. And he's the greatest broadcaster ever.”
