Wilburn has assembled 400+ career wins at the dot, was recently named a 1^st Team WPIAL selection, and is committed to Ohio Northern University. So, there is no doubt that Wilburn is one of the top face-off specialists in Pennsylvania. Still, nobody could have predicted the dominating performance Wilburn would post in the 2A championship game. On Saturday, Wilburn went 24-for-31 on face-offs, scored a goal, and dished out an assist. Wilburn’s extraordinary performance included going 9-out-of-10 in the decisive 4^th quarter. His clean wins gave Mars a massive time of possession advantage in this game. But more importantly, it enabled Mars to score goals in a flash, which was the key to their 4^th quarter comeback. Wilburn’s speed and decision-making while on the run were remarkable.       

One of the biggest factors in evaluating faceoff specialists is hand speed and exits, and Josh Wilburn checked both boxes at an elite level at NHSLS. The ONU commit’s pinch-and-pop is incredibly tough to stop. If you’re slow to the clamp, he will smoke you forward. If you’re quick to prevent that, he can exit behind with ease. Even trying to body him up doesn’t help much—his technique is so dialed in that he can still win the ball with a defender draped on him. With the ball in his stick, he handles pressure well using both hands, escapes trouble quickly, and is a scoring threat if teams try to lock off his attackmen in transition.