September 15, 2012
By JERRY HOLSWORTH
Special to The Winchester Star

HEDGESVILLE, W.Va. — Despite a brilliant performance by their defense James Wood literally turned over the victory to Hedgesville (W.Va.), committing six costly turnovers in a 27-19 defeat.

All but seven of the host Eagles’ 27 points came off Colonel turnovers, making James Wood coach Mike Bolin scratch his head after his defense, with the exception of one play, dominated Hedgesville’s offense for four quarters.
“I really don’t know what to say,” Bolin said. “We can say that we fumbled the football four times and start pointing our fingers at each other but the bottom line is that I’m not getting the job done. This loss is on me and I’m the one who’s going to have to fix it.”

That one exception, however, got the Eagles the first points of the game.

With the ball on its own 31-yard line, Hedgesville took advantage of James Wood’s aggressiveness to score seven points.

After a fake to the right, Eagle quarterback Lane Riner handed the ball to tailback Rahsaan Shanton (17 carries for 88 yards) on a perfectly-executed counter play that resulted in a 61-yard run by the Hedgesville senior to put the Eagles up 7-0 with 8:15 left in the first quarter.

Wood responded on its next possession with a 27-yard field goal by Matt Rader to narrow Hedgesville’s lead to 7-3 with 1:26 left in the first quarter.

Heading into the second quarter the wheels seemed to come off for the Colonel offense.

Taking the ball over on their own 10-yard line after an Eagle punt, Colonel tailback Dallas Corbin (17 carries for 59 yards) blasted through the Eagle defensive line for a 2-yard gain.

Working hard to try and stretch it to three yards, however, proved to be a mistake when Corbin fumbled the ball and Hedgesville defensive back Logan Horn picked it up and raced 22 yards for the Eagles’ second touchdown of the game.

Midway through the second quarter, another turnover by the Colonels helped the Eagles score again.

Wood quarterback Camden Butler (13 for 24 for 172 yards and two interceptions) was intercepted by Eagle Hunter Weaver and it took Hedgesville just five plays to capitalize.

Fittingly it was Weaver who got the touchdown on a 13-yard run to put Hedgesville up 20-3 with 3:09 left in the first half.

This mishap seemed to wake up at least one Colonel player.

Corbin took the ensuing kickoff and blasted through the Hedgesville side for a 78-yard touchdown that narrowed the Eagle to lead to 20-10 heading into halftime.

Inspired by Corbin’s score, as well as being able to collect themselves in the locker room at halftime, Wood dominated the third quarter on both sides of the ball.

Three more Colonel turnovers in the quarter, however, kept them off the scoreboard.

The last turnover of the quarter helped Hedgesville add to its lead on the first play of the fourth.

After Butler connected on an 8-yard pass to Colin Benner, the Wood receiver fumbled the ball and Eagle linebacker Kyler Martin scooped up the loose football and returned it to the Colonels’ 13-yard line.

Three plays later, Riner found Weaver in the end zone for a 17-yard touchdown pass to expand Hedgesville’s lead to 27-10 with 11:52 left in the game.

“We just kept playing hard, our kids kept trying to make the big play and although they weren’t successful every time, they certainly made several,” said Hedgesville coach Rich Thomaselli. “We knew that Wood liked to run the ball a lot, our strategy was to make them play on as big a field as we could and hope they made a mistake and that certainly worked tonight.”

Pushed back deep in their own territory by the Colonel defense midway through the fourth quarter, Hedgesville punter Austin Graham elected to take a safety rather than risk a blocked punt.

Wood, however, responded quickly, scoring on a 3-play, 57-yard drive to cut the deficit to 27-19 on a 4-yard run by Joey Eubank with 5:14 left in the game.

After forcing the Eagles to punt on their next possession, the Colonels gave the ball right back when Butler threw his second interception of the game, and the sixth turnover of the game, killing any chance of a dramatic fourth-quarter comeback by the Colonels.

“Our kids played hard. We were completely out-manned most of the game and James Wood is such a physical team,” Thomaselli said. “We just had to find a way to get it done and we did.”

Junior wide receiver Dakota Orndorff finished with eight catches for 69 yards for James Wood and the Colonel defense allowed just 48 yards rushing outside of Shanton’s 61-yard scamper in the first quarter but miscues did them in.

“We’re just going to go back and start over,” Bolin said. “We’re going to try and find out who the players are that will put us in the best position to be successful. It might work and it might not, but I’m going to do the best I can to get this job done.”