‘Time to compete with the big guns.’ Woodford County lacrosse eyes playoff glory
Woodford County’s boys lacrosse team wants to prove it’s ready to play with the “big guns” after going undefeated last year on its way to the final Commonwealth Lacrosse League club title.
This year, if Woodford is to call itself a KHSAA state champion, the No. 4 Yellow Jackets (11-2) have to contend with both their old CLL rivals in central Kentucky and the juggernauts from Louisville’s now-defunct club league — No. 1 St. Xavier, No. 2 Trinity and No. 3 South Oldham — among others in the Laxnumbers.com rankings.
“We just want to go up from here,” Woodford sophomore attacker Greyson Hodge said. “It’s time to compete with the big guns, you know. We’re just ready to compete and ready to have fun.”
Woodford began its postseason journey as the top seed in the KHSAA’s 8th Region Tournament and walloped Lafayette 32-1 on Saturday morning to secure a spot in Monday’s region championship game and next week’s state tournament.
The Yellow Jackets will face tournament host Lexington Catholic, a 13-5 winner against Lexington Christian in Saturday’s other semifinal.
“We’re ready to play a great game, and we’ll be ready to move on in the playoffs,” said Hodge’s older brother Graham, a senior defender.
Also advancing to the state tournament from central Kentucky will be Henry Clay and Frederick Douglass, who won their 7th Region semifinals at Great Crossing on Saturday. The 7th Region championship will also be contested Monday night with the winner getting the first KHSAA-sanctioned region trophy and home-field advantage in the first round of next week’s state playoffs.
Woodford program built up from youth lacrosse
Woodford County coach Ted Wilson has built his program into one of the best teams outside of Louisville in a relatively short time. He only took over fully as head coach in 2022. He gives credit for the Yellow Jackets’ success to the Hodge brothers’ father, Rob Hodge, who has shepherded the community’s youth program for years.
“He gave me the tools. All I had to do was put the tools to the task,” Wilson said. “It became X’s and O’s at that point. And he gave me two of his own kids, who are amazing at the sport. Then the rest of these guys, all four classes we have, have played together since they were, I don’t know, 7 or 8. That’s how you grow a lacrosse program. Start them when they’re young, and their skills transfer all the way through the rest of their career.
“That’s what Trinity and St. X and all those guys have been doing this whole time, and we’re finally getting it right.”
Woodford’s 31-point win raised eyebrows across the 7th and 8th regions Saturday. But the Yellow Jackets have become known for not letting off the gas on lesser opponents. In the regular season, they defeated Paul Laurence Dunbar 28-1, Tates Creek 27-1, Bryan Station 29-0, Lexington Christian 20-5 and the Generals 19-1.
“The only thing I could do is actively tell them not to do something. And we’ve lost four games due to cancellation. I need them to get as many reps as they can,” Wilson explained. “So, I cannot, I will never, actively tell anyone to stop playing the sport. It’s not really fair to the level that they’ve achieved to be like, ‘Hey, you guys can’t go out there and be great.’ I feel like the most respectful thing is to treat every team the same way. So, we’re going to play every team the exact same way, no matter what.”
Trying to close the gap to Louisville’s teams
Woodford County’s two losses came to South Oldham, 10-8 on March 24, and to Trinity, 16-7 on April 15. Wilson acknowledged there’s a gap his team still has to bridge to knock off those top teams.
“What I can tell you is we made a lot of mistakes,” he said of the losses. “So, the only thing we can really do is clean those mistakes up, right? We’re not going to make our players better in a short season. That work happens outside of the season, so the only thing we can do is get better as a team. Sharpen up those mistakes and make better IQ plays.”
Woodford defeated its finals opponent, Lexington Catholic, 21-6 on Wednesday in the final game of the regular season. Wilson is aiming for a similar result Monday.
“I can’t even express the importance,” Wilson said. “To win like we won the other day is important to me, as well, because I want people to know our pedigree before we go into the state.”
But Lexington Catholic doesn’t intend to go down easy. The Knights won four CLL state titles in their history, including back-to-back crowns before Woodford got its first.
“We played them last week, but we were missing a lot of guys,” LexCath coach Matt Cervoni said. “That’s not an excuse, but we tested out some different game plan stuff. I think we’re going to throw some different things at them Monday.”
Saturday’s other region semifinals
Henry Clay 8, Sayre 6: The No. 11 Blue Devils (13-3) rallied from being down 3-0 at the end of the first quarter and 3-1 at halftime to knock off the No. 7 Spartans (11-4) in one of the 7th Region semifinals at Great Crossing on Saturday.
“Max Thayer came out in the third quarter and scored our first three goals to put us up by one,” Henry Clay coach Ben Ternosky said. “I actually went to my assistant coach and said, ‘Are we winning?’ It didn’t feel like we were winning.”
Thayer scored four goals and had two assists to lead the Blue Devils. Konner Cobb had two goals, while Griffin Kaylor and Leland Bayne scored one each. Lincoln Rowland led the team with four assists.
Henry Clay and Sayre are, of course, district foes in many other sports and have a full-fledged lacrosse rivalry as well. Henry Clay topped Sayre 10-6 in the regular season in a game that was close until the fourth quarter.
“It was getting a little chippy,” Ternosky said. “A lot of emotions got the best of the kids, but we just executed a little bit more down the stretch than they did.”
Douglass 11, Great Crossing 2: Jimmy Hoods and Reid Mizeur scored four goals apiece as the No. 5 Broncos (13-4) cruised to victory over the host Warhawks in Saturday’s other 7th Region semifinal.
Despite the win, Douglass coach Chris Schaefer felt his team could have been more focused, especially considering a region tournament trophy will be on the line Monday when it faces Henry Clay.
“A win is a win, but the way that we do it is always frustrating,” Schaefer said. “We just go through the motions, which is annoying. … It’s a mentality thing with our team all the time that we’ve just got to get up for every game.”
Ben Sealy, Noah Buchanan and Nolan Falloway scored the other three goals.
Schaefer said he believed his team will be ready Monday.
“I can’t complain,” he admitted. “This is a cool thing that we’re finally sanctioned and it feels a lot more real moving on now.”
Lexington Catholic 13, Lexington Christian 5: The No. 7 Knights (10-7) came out the aggressor against No. 13 LCA (11-6) to secure their spot in the 8th Region finals, which they will host Monday.
“They played well,” LexCath coach Cervoni said. “The biggest things were that we had our faceoff guy (Alex Vennari) really stepping up on the faceoffs and playing offense. That was huge. And the boys came in and executed the game plan.”
Quinn Bernotas and Wes Taylor each scored three goals for the Knights. Daniel Vines and Vennari added two..
Monday’s region championships
BOYS 7TH REGION FINALS AT GREAT CROSSING
8 p.m.: Frederick Douglass vs. Henry Clay
BOYS 8TH REGION FINALS AT LEXINGTON CATHOLIC
6:30 p.m.: Woodford County vs. Lexington Catholic.
