September 1, 2012
By KEVIN TRUDGEON

PURCELLVILLE — The image of the James Wood football team trudging off the field following their postgame talk told the story Friday night.

Some limped, some staggered, and many simply walked slowly towards the gate, the aftereffects of their just-completed game against Loudoun Valley on full display.

Hoping to build off a season-opening win over Heritage a week earlier, the Colonels instead were battered and beaten by the Vikings in a 52-19 loss that saw multiple James Wood players head to the sidelines with injuries.

“They just overpowered us,” said James Wood coach Mike Bolin. “We had some injuries early and they just kept running over us and running over us and running over us.”

Loudoun Valley (1-1) was coming off a disheartening overtime loss to Fauquier in its opener and coach Daniel McGrath said before the game that he felt like his offense just never got going against the Falcons.
The Vikings did not have that issue against James Wood (1-1).

Starting with its opening drive, which they took at their own 38 and proceeded to march 62 yards on six plays, with tailback Bryce Wince scoring from 8 yards out on a pitch, the Loudoun Valley offense would have its way with the Colonel defense.

Of its 11 possessions in the game, the Vikings scored eight times (seven touchdowns and one field goal) and moved the ball almost at will.

An 85-yard kickoff return by James Wood senior Bradley Skillman following Loudoun Valley’s opening score set up a short field for the Colonels and senior quarterback Cam Butler cashed it in from one yard out.

But the ensuing extra point was blocked, the first of two on the night for the Vikings, and it was all Loudoun Valley after that.

Wince (19 carries for 162 yards) scored on a 5-yard run, sophomore tailback Andrew Cordani scampered in from 26 yards out, quarterback

Neil Frazier hit Brandon Grayson on an 11-yard touchdown pass, and sophomore kicker Aaron Peart nailed a 30-yard field goal to make it 31-6 heading into halftime.

“We just couldn’t stop them,” said Bolin, who watched standout lineman Erik Bearer limp to the sideline with an apparent leg injury late in the first quarter and also lost starting running back Dallas Corbin and a handful of other players over the course of the game. “We couldn’t stop them at all.”

The Colonels didn’t help themselves, as Butler was picked off twice and the Loudoun Valley defense and special teams gave their offense a short field to work with all night long.

A 12-play, 72-yard drive that featured hard running from Skillman (14 carries for 84 yards) and senior fullback Brett Lewin (eight carries

for 43 yards) to open up the third quarter gave the Colonel faithful something to cheer about, but it was short lived.

Loudoun Valley, which would lose Wince to an ankle injury that forced him to be carted off the field, answered with a 13-play drive of its own that was capped by a 26-yard run by Cordani and, after a Colonel three-and-out, the Vikings stretched their lead to 45-13 on a 2-yard run by Cordani.

All in all the Loudoun Valley sophomore finished with six carries for 104 yards and four touchdowns as the Vikings rushed for 305 yards in the game.

“It’s always a process, we thought we could have this same offensive output last week but we just didn’t get it,” McGrath said. “Our guys did a good job of executing and our special teams really came up big for us.

“You hate to see [Wince] get hurt like that and we’re all hoping for a speedy recovery for him, but we knew we had a good JV tailback in [Cordani] and he came in and played great.”

Butler would find junior wide receiver Dakota Orndorff in the back of the end zone on 4th-and-9 with just under three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, but Viking junior Atticus Keane took the following kickoff back 70 yards and Cordani scored on a 21-yard run on the very next play to put the game out of reach.

James Wood totaled 169 yards on the ground, but most of it came after the outcome was no longer in doubt. Butler finished 7 for 18 for 90 yards and the two interceptions.

“Defensively they were just so much bigger and stronger than us,” Bolin said. “The injuries really hurt us. We’ve got a couple concussions, a couple other things. We’re just going to have to evaluate it [today] because we’re down a lot of guys right now. By the end of the game we were out of linemen.”

— Contact Kevin Trudgeon at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Follow on Twitter @WinStarSports1

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