Football Preview: Park View at James Wood

Records: Park View Patriots (0-1); James Wood Colonels (0-1).

Last week: Park View lost to T.C. Williams 63-14; James Wood lost to Sherando 58-8.

Last year: James Wood won 23-6.

Players to watch: Park View — QB Tony Lampe, RB Darian Greenhow, WR/DE Jose Miguel, DL Adonay Cruz. James Wood — RB William Crowder, OL/DL Dominic Revetta, QB Mike Zebarth, S Josh Kesner.

Preview: James Wood takes on one of the two teams it beat last season, and both teams head into this matchup with new coaches.

Ryan Morgan will coach his first varsity home game with the Colonels against Park View’s Josh Wild, who coached Class 1 Washington & Lee last year. Wild takes over a program that went 2-8 last year.

After falling behind 51-0 in the first half and gaining just 11 yards total in last week’s defeat, Morgan said the biggest point of emphasis for his team this week was getting it to play at a faster pace. Sherando’s effectiveness with a no-huddle approach for part of the first quarter showed just how dangerous playing at a brisk pace can be.

“One of the things last week was that [our players] got fatigued and out of breath, and then their decision-making started to falter,” Morgan said. “That’s been a focus this week. We’ve been getting them tired, and then trying to get them to make quick decisions. Hopefully that will help us [tonight].”

Park View ran the single wing last year, but the Patriots are using a pistol offense under Wild.

Morgan said the Patriots took to the air a lot last week with Lampe, though he added that was likely as a result of falling behind quickly.

“They run almost all four-wide receiver sets,” Morgan said. “I think they’re probably going to try and run it a little bit more this week, but they’re definitely going to try and put the ball up in the air.

“The quarterback has a very strong arm, but mostly what they try to do is hit you in the flats, hit you with slant routes. They’ll throw some deep balls too, but mostly they’re trying to hit receivers short in space so they can give them a chance to run.”

Morgan said 6-0, 215-pound wide receiver Jose Miguel is one of Lampe’s main targets.

Morgan said Park View has some size on its offensive line, including one player who’s 6-4 and 347 pounds.

On defense, the Patriots play a 3-4.

“They’ve got a big defensive line, and some big defensive backs,” Morgan said. “Hopefully we can match up and use our offensive line to wall those guys off from the football.”

James Wood didn’t do much on offense last week, but sophomore William Crowder showed his explosiveness with an 82-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. The running back burned Park View with 94 yards and two touchdowns on seven carries last year.

“Not only does he have speed, but he’s a powerful kid,” said Morgan on Friday night of the 5-10, 193-pound sophomore. “He’s tough to take down one-on-one. It helps us to get him space, and we’ve got to find a way to do that more often.”

— Compiled by Robert Niedzwiecki