Sherando Dominates James Wood From The Start In 44-7 Win

Posted: October 11, 2014
By KEVIN TRUDGEON
The Winchester Star

STEPHENS CITY — The expected showers never did materialize at Sherando High School’s Arrowhead Stadium, but that didn’t stop the Warriors from reigning over the James Wood football team Friday.

On a night when it felt like the sky might open up at any moment, Sherando took care of business early, scoring four touchdowns during a six-minute span in the first quarter and rolling to a 44-7 rout of the Colonels in the Northwestern District opener for both teams.

“We had a really early call for rain, so Coach [Bill] Hall told us we were just going to pound the ball, pound the ball, so I told our offensive linemen early in the week that we knew what we had to do and we went out and did it,” said senior running back LeeQuan Johnson.

It didn’t take long to realize what the game plan for the Warriors (5-2, 1-0 Northwestern) was going to be — on their opening drive they ran the ball with Johnson nine straight times — but that didn’t mean James Wood (3-4, 0-1) was going to be able to stop it.

Johnson’s ninth carry took him into the end zone from 1 yard out to cap the 58-yard drive, and he was just getting started.

The next time he touched the ball he sprinted untouched through a gaping hole in the middle of the line for a 57-yard score and tacked on a 16-yard touchdown three carries after that.

All told, Johnson finished with 175 yards and three touchdowns on 18 carries — all in the first half — as part of a Sherando rushing attack that totaled 238 yards on 35 attempts.

“I thought it was important that we did a good job establishing the line of scrimmage and the physicality that we wanted to play with,” Hall said. “I think that’s a credit to our guys. Obviously they weren’t pleased with last week’s [28-14 loss to Liberty] and we had a good week of practice and they did a good job of setting the tempo from the first snap.”

The Warriors had trailed at the half in each of their previous three games (28-14 to Liberty, 14-10 to Jefferson (W.Va.) and 7-3 to Kettle Run) but headed into the locker room up 42-0 thanks to a dominant first two quarters Friday night.

While Johnson was running roughshod over the Colonel defense, senior Adam Whitacre provided a spark both on special teams and in the passing game.

After James Wood went three-and-out on its opening possession, Whitacre fielded the punt from Brady Hepner at his own 15-yard line, took off towards the Sherando sideline and then cut back to the middle of the field for an 85-yard touchdown return that made it 14-0 less than four minutes into the game.

Two possessions later, Whitacre followed up a 57-yard completion between quarterback Pat Minteer (4 for 10 for 153 yards and two touchdowns) and senior tight end Brogan McPartland with a 27-yard touchdown catch on a perfect pass down the middle of the field from Minteer to stretch the lead to 28-0.

“Momentum’s a big key for any team and I think offensively we did a good job of grabbing the momentum right away,” Johnson said. “We came out wanting to run the ball and when we can run like that, it pulls the linebackers up and then we can beat them with the pass.”

While the offense was having its way, the Sherando defense was exorcising some demons after allowing an uncharacteristic 384 rushing yards last week in the loss to the Eagles.

The Warriors finished with three sacks, 12 tackles for loss and did not allow James Wood to get a first down until midway through the second quarter when Hepner (7 for 13 for 78 yards) executed a fake punt on fourth-and-1.

“They were real aggressive,” said Colonel senior running back Reid Barber, who finished with 41 yards on three carries in the second half to lead a rushing attack that finished with just 40 yards total.

“They were getting off the ball strong and it just seemed like at first there weren’t any holes open and we just couldn’t get anything going.”

Minteer capped the first half scoring with a screen pass to sophomore running back Cordell Peterson, who broke left and scampered down the sideline for a 32-yard score with 12 seconds remaining in the half.

Hall rested most of his starters in the second half, but McPartland, who led the way on defense for the Warriors with 21/2 sacks and 3 tackles for loss, added a safety to his resume when he sacked Hepner in the end zone on the first drive of the third quarter.

Barber helped James Wood avoid the shutout with a 1-yard run early in the fourth quarter.

“They whipped us up front on both sides of the ball,” said James Wood coach Mark McHale, whose team was out-gained 391-118. “They’re just too big and too physical for us. But the kids know that, they knew these guys were good. We told them we were thinking upset if a couple things went well and the ball bounces the right way, but it just didn’t happen.”

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