James Wood opens its football season with Sherando

It won’t be a normal situation when the James Wood football team travels to Sherando tonight for a 6 p.m. kickoff at Arrowhead Stadium, but it’s a situation both teams have already prepared for this season.

For the second time this year, a Colonels team with no game experience in 2021 will face an opponent with significantly more game experience.

On April 2, James Wood was scheduled to open its season at Goochland, which was 5-0 at the time. But late on April 1, the game was canceled, the first of multiple Colonels schedule changes in which its April 9 game with Liberty was canceled and its April 15 game with Millbrook was moved to April 27 (Tuesday). James Wood was cleared to begin practicing again as a full team on April 12.

For the second time this year, Sherando goes into a contest with no 2021 game film on its opponent.

The Warriors opened their season on April 1 with Millbrook, which was in the same boat as Sherando. It hasn’t always been smooth sailing for the Warriors, but they’ve found themselves riding high at the end of each game and carry a 3-0 record into its season finale against the Colonels.

Sherando has outscored its opponents (Millbrook twice, and Culpeper) 106-45 and outgained them by an average of 415.3 yards per game to 281.7. The Warriors are coming off an impressive 30-7 win over Millbrook last week in which they outgained the Pioneers 387-249 and created four turnovers.

Sherando coach Bill Hall wanted his team to give the type of performance this season that would make people wonder what they could have done in a normal regular season. Part of that goal involved recording a 4-0 record, and the Warriors are one step away from achieving that feat.

“I think [the players] are taking full advantage of the opportunities that they’ve been given,” said Hall, whose team defeated James Wood 49-12 to open the 2019 season. “It doesn’t get lost on them the fact that they get to play. I think for our underclassmen, it’s valuable experience. For some of these guys in the recruiting world, it gives college coaches a chance to see film on them, and they’re taking great advantage of that.

“It gives our guys an opportunity for closure for the seniors, and I think they’ve demonstrated the potential that they did have. We just try to focus on what we can control, and all we could control is the games we got to play. We wanted to make sure we played them to the standards we expect in our program, and those guys wanted to leave a mark.”

Against Millbrook last week, one of those seniors showed why he’s going to play football for Virginia Tech on a full scholarship.

Linebacker/wide receiver Keli Lawson returned to play only four games his junior season as a result of a fractured knee. In addition to scoring only seven points, Millbrook had four turnovers against the Warriors thanks to players like Lawson, who had a team-high 15 tackles (nine solo), two sacks and 5.5 tackles for loss.

“That’s a crazy stat line,” said Hall with a laugh after reciting Lawson’s stats. “He also had a touchdown called back. He’s such a dynamic player. He’s just scratching the surface. He’s just got so much potential.

“It’s a credit to him and to how he worked to develop and get back. His best days are ahead of him.”

Just the fact that James Wood has the opportunity to play a football game tonight means the Colonels’ best days are ahead of them, regardless of how they fare in their two-game season.

Though James Wood was shut down from full team practices for 11 days beginning on April 1, Colonels coach Ryan Morgan said some players were able to come to school for small group workouts, and James Wood also held team meetings over Zoom.

The hiatus wasn’t ideal as far as getting prepared for the season, but Morgan said the Colonels have adjusted as well as they can.

“It was a little bit difficult to get everybody on the same page again,” Morgan said. “We had to make sure everybody was getting ready as close to the same pace as possible. The kids have done a good job. At this point, they’re used to rolling with the punches and doing what they need to do to try and get ready.

“Anytime you’re playing a first game, whether you have a couple scrimmages under your belt or not, you’re always kind of wondering how things are going to go when the whistle blows. There’s nothing really that sticks out as a major concern. But we haven’t seen a lot of these kids play, at least on a varsity level, and so you just kind of wonder how they’ll respond when there’s pressure. It’s a situation of, ‘What’s our team going to look like this year?”

On offense, James Wood will start Jayson Herndon at quarterback.

The senior played wide receiver last year and caught 11 passes for 166 yards and three TDs and the plan was for Herndon to continue playing receiver this year. But when one of James Wood’s candidates to play quarterback quit the team, Morgan decided to have Herndon compete for time with sophomore Jacob Manuel, who was the Colonels’ JV quarterback last year. Morgan named Herndon the starter in the week leading up to the planned Goochland game based on the three-year varsity player’s experience level with the offense.

He’ll have junior wide receiver Jaden Ashby (48 catches, 777 yards, 10 TDs last year) to throw to. Senior Joey Vitola (10 carries, 28 yards, TD) and junior Wes Brondos will be the featured players at tailback in James Wood’s spread offense.

Defensively, the Colonels are led by the linebacker Vitola (62 tackles) and senior defensive end Clayton Jones (44 tackles, eight sacks).

“First game, teams often struggle to tackle, so that’s going to be one of the things to watch for us,” Morgan said. “Our [roster] numbers are down a little bit, so we haven’t hit as much as we normally would. We focused on tackling pretty well, but you never know how it’s going to go until things go live. We’ve got to make sure we’re tackling well.

“I think the game is going to be decided in the trenches. The big guys up front, whether it’s offense or defense. Our guys are going to have to play to the best of their ability in order to take care of the line of scrimmage.”

In addition to Lawson, (30 tackles, eight for loss), Sherando’s stat leaders include junior quarterback Dylan Rodeffer (45 of 65, 547 yards, five touchdowns, one interception), sophomore wide receiver A.J. Santiago (19 catches, 263 yards, three TDs) and junior running back Cameron Sullivan (69 carries, 403 yards, two TDs).

“We just want to continue progression,” Hall said. “The same things always play true in football. Turnover ratio, explosive plays, line of scrimmage are always the keys to successful football.

“Obviously an opponent you haven’t seen, there are going to have to be adjustments that are made during the course of the game. But all our concepts, passing game wise, account for any type of coverage. It’s just important that we identify coverages and read progression.”

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