Football Preview: Loudoun Valley at James Wood

When: Today, 7 p.m.

Where: James Wood’s Jerry L. Kelican Stadium, Winchester

Records: Loudoun Valley (0-0); James Wood (0-1)

Last week: Season opener for Loudoun Valley; James Wood lost to Heritage 43-29

Last year: Loudoun Valley won 52-19

Preview: There will be a new quarterback in the backfield and hopefully a new result on the scoreboard for James Wood when Loudoun Valley comes to town tonight.

Last year the Colonels were physically overpowered by a Vikings team that rushed for 305 yards and handed them the first of nine straight losses.

But anyone wondering if James Wood would look different under new coach Mark McHale needed only to watch the first half against Heritage last week, when the Colonels debuted a read-option attack that helped them sprint out to a 22-7 lead before eventually falling to Heritage.

Now with Cam Butler back in the mix — the senior quarterback has been out with mononucleosis since early August — the James Wood attack should be even more potent.

“It’s a big plus for us,” said McHale about the return of Butler, which allows backup quarterback Brady Hepner to return to his natural position at wide receiver.

McHale said that he expects Loudoun Valley, which has yet to play a game this season, to line up in an offset-I formation and keep the ball on the ground with reigning Dulles District Division 3 Offensive Player of the Year Andrew Cordani.

“That Coach [Daniel] McGrath’s a good coach, he played at Virginia Tech and he likes to run the zone and the outside zone,” McHale said. “They like to establish the run.”

Despite the final score against Heritage, McHale said he saw a lot of things he liked, including rushing for over 300 yards, but that the Colonels must limit their mistakes and correct some issues on special teams if they hope to get their first win of the season tonight.

“We let the team watch the game film on Saturday and if you eliminate four plays, two on the punt team and two on passes, it looks like we’re winning pretty handily,” McHale said. “We put a lot of emphasis on the punt and kickoff teams this week and Willi Spears has done a good job directionally kicking the ball for us.”

James Wood will be without starting defensive end Christian Marchelewski, who is out with a knee injury, and fellow defensive end Devin Moncrief has been battling strep throat all week, but McHale is confident his team can build off their strong showing last week.

“We did some things well [against Heritage], now we just have to fix some of the mistakes we made and continue to get better,” McHale said.