By Tim Mastro

GREENWOOD — Marvin Dooley called Friday night the best offensive performance he’s seen this year out of the Woodbridge High football team.

The defense meanwhile did what it has been doing all year.

Woodbridge earned a shutout and Kenny Newton rushed for a pair of touchdowns as the Blue Raiders defeated Tower Hill School 31-0 in the quarterfinals of the Class 2A state football tournament Friday. The Blue Raiders, who were coming off a first round bye, remained unbeaten at 11-0 overall and reached the semifinals for the fourth straight season.

“We battle everyday at practice and practice makes perfect,” said senior lineman Ellis Cannon. “We work hard everyday to come back on Friday to get the win.”

The second-seeded Blue Raiders will host the winner of today’s contest between No. 3 seed Wilmington Friends (9-1) and No. 6 seed Delmar (7-3) in the semifinals on either Friday, Dec. 3 or Saturday, Dec. 4.

Tower Hill, who was seeded seventh and knocked off 10th seed Sussex Tech in the first round last week, finished its season at 8-3.

Woodbridge raced out to a 24-0 halftime lead Friday thanks to touchdowns by three different players.

Newton got the scoring started with 4:35 left in the first quarter on a rushing touchdown from a yard out. He nearly had another on the next possession. which would have been a 70-yard score, but it was whistled back due to a Woodbridge penalty.

The Blue Raiders had to wait until 4:15 remaining in the second to find the end zone again. That’s when Seth Smart fired a five-yard pass over the middle to Lextyn Wescott before Newton added his second straight two-point conversion for a 16-0 advantage.

Wyatt Wright then scored a rushing touchdown of his own with 2:02 to go in the first half on a four-yard rush and Jordan Evans scored the two-point conversion.

Dooley credited the strong play of his offensive line for the success of the Blue Raider running game, especially important he said due to the cold-weather on Friday which made Woodbridge rely more on rushing the football.

“We’ve struggled some this year but we found it tonight,” Dooley said. “The offensive line won the battle up front, they deserve kudos. It was great to see the kids compete and make the plays.”

The first half touchdowns were aided by some big plays on defense as Ci-Atrick Stones recorded an interception and Cannon recovered a fumble.

It allowed Woodbridge to dominate the field position battle as Tower Hill only had two possessions where it crossed midfield. Field position was another key to Woodbridge’s gameplan, Dooley said.

“Teams driving 70 yards on my defense isn’t going to happen unless we give up a big play,” Dooley said. “We’re going to play to our strength, our defense.”

Newton capped the Woodbridge scoring with a nine-yard run with six seconds left in the third quarter — the only score by either team in the second half.