Wood hopes to bounce back against Skyline

After suffering its worst loss since the 2018 season opener against Sherando, the James Wood football team will get a chance to show its resiliency this week.

The Colonels host Skyline (1-0) at 7 p.m. tonight at Kelican Stadium following last week’s 54-8 loss against Sherando. It’s not the type of loss James Wood is used to in recent years, having posted three straight winning seasons and a 15-8 record from 2019-21.

In an interview on Tuesday afternoon, James Wood coach Ryan Morgan said his team had responded well in practice to the defeat in which the Colonels were outgained 458-214.

“They recognize there are a lot of things we didn’t do correctly,” Morgan said. “Things that just didn’t happen in practices and didn’t happen in scrimmages all the sudden happened on Friday night. They recognize there’s a lot of work to be done, but they also recognize they’re a better football team than what they showed on Friday. We’ve gotten back to work, and hopefully we’ll put on a better performance this Friday night.”

With James Wood having lost more than half its starters from last year, Morgan feels nerves might have played a role in the rough execution that the team had, along with the fact that Sherando is a quality football team.

“We had alignment issues, we obviously had some snap issues on a punt, we had personnel issues with kids not coming off the field when they were supposed to come off the field for special teams, or not going on the field for special teams,” Morgan said. “We practice those things, just for whatever reason it didn’t happen on Friday night.”

James Wood doesn’t know as much about Skyline as it would like to. The Colonels did not get to play the Hawks last year because of COVID issues with Skyline, and the Hawks didn’t get to play last week’s opener against Strasburg. Skyline received a forfeit win over the host Rams because of a threat made on social media prior to the game.

James Wood did receive two scrimmage films from Skyline, but that’s not quite the same.

“Teams are always a little bit vanilla in scrimmages and hold some things back,” Morgan said. “The things that they’re holding back, they’ve now had a week to put in more as far as formations and motions and different plays. Last week, we showed some things that we didn’t show in scrimmages, and so did Sherando, and I’m sure we’re going to see some different things from Skyline.”

The Hawks are led by quarterback Aidan Vaught, who played running back last year and rushed for 948 yards and 13 touchdowns.

“He’s just really shifty,” Morgan said. “We struggled to tackle people in space on Friday night, and he can make people miss in small spaces. We’ve got to do a better job of tackling and aiming for the correct hip, and kind of caging guys in. He’s a good athlete, and we’re going to have to get 11 guys to the football. It can’t just be one, because he’ll make us miss.”

Morgan said the Colonels will have to watch out for senior wide receiver Tyson Funk. Cole Britton and Alijah James are Skyline’s tailbacks.

James Wood’s defense is led by junior linebackers Zach Smith (12 tackles vs. Sherando) and Eli Richards (10).

With Skyline’s defense, Morgan is impressed with defensive lineman Jack Clingerman (6-3, 265) and linebacker Dustin Gue, who led the Hawks with 83 tackles last year.

“We’ve got to make sure we’re getting a hat [on Gue] with the offensive line or are tight ends, because he does a really good job of reading the offensive line and getting to the ball,” Morgan said.

James Wood will look for a stronger offensive performance behind quarterback Jared Neal (10 of 28 for 79 yards) and running backs Isaiah Ralls (16 carries, 97 yards) and Smith (13 carries, 55 yards).

Morgan hopes the team as a whole is prepared to attack from the start.

“We’ve got to be ready emotionally to come out from the opening whistle and try to win every snap,” Morgan said.

— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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