Kettle Run fights off James Wood

WINCHESTER — Defending Class 4 Northwestern District champion and undefeated Kettle Run probably thought it wouldn’t have too many problems against winless James Wood, but the Cougars got all they could handle Friday night at Kelican Stadium.

James Wood led 14-7 early in the second quarter and was within 35-28 more than halfway through the third quarter, but Kettle Run went on to a 54-28 victory in the Colonels’ Hall of Fame game.

Some ill-timed mistakes along with three huge plays by the Cougars (5-0, 1-0 district) led to 21 unanswered points and a 28-14 Kettle Run halftime lead. The Colonels (0-4, 0-2) could never match up, but they clearly showed improvement.

“The most points they’d allowed all season was 14 and we doubled that and the most we had scored was 20 and we beat that,” James Wood coach Ryan Morgan said.

“There’s still a lot of things to fix as far as discipline goes and pass protections,” Morgan added. “We did better at tackling but we still need to do better. We tried to simplify some things for the offense this week. Last week we made a lot of silly mistakes. This week we took out some things that we weren’t doing well and tried to focus more on some things that we could do consistently.”

After forcing a punt on the game’s opening possession, James Wood took over at its own 20.

After being shut out last week at Brentsville, it took the Colonels only three plays to score against the Cougars.

On the second play, junior running back Eli Richards (126 yards rushing) busted through the line and raced nearly untouched for 76 yards. He was caught from behind at the 1. Zach Smith scored on the next play to give James Wood a 7-0 lead.

Kettle Run drove 80 yards on six plays on the ensuing drive and tied the game on Colton Quaker’s 14-yard run with 3:55 left in the first quarter.

Following a big kickoff return, the Colonels started their next possession at their 46. They were able to drive 54 yards in 10 plays and regained the lead when quarterback Jared Neal (144 yards passing) hit Andrew Link (six catches, 121 yards, two TDs) on a crossing pattern for a 12-yard touchdown that made it 14-7 with 17 seconds left in the first quarter.

James Wood forced a turnover on downs at it own 15 on the next possession, but that’s when things started to go south for them.

On third down from the 19, Kettle Run made the first of its interceptions and returned it to the Colonels’ 11. Two plays later, Abram Chumley (334 yards passing, three TDs) scored on a four-yard quarterback keeper to make it 14-14.

After a James Wood punt, Chumley found Jordan Tapscott open on the far sideline, and he made several defenders miss as he raced 78 yards to put Kettle Run ahead for good at 21-14.

The Colonels stopped another Kettle Run scoring threat with an interception just before the half and returned it to near midfield.

With just five seconds left on the clock the Colonels took one last shot at the end zone, but then disaster struck. A Kettle Run player intercepted a pass after it had been tipped twice. He weaved in and out of potential tacklers and fought his way 96 yards as time expired on the first half for a 28-14 lead.

In the second half, James Wood showed its offense has some big-play potential as well.

On third-and-12 from the 27 on the first drive of the second half, Neal again found Link coming across the middle. He went 73 yards to cut the deficit to 28-21.

After the Cougars scored to make it 35-21, Lane Overbaugh (114 yards rushing) busted through the line and he raced 69 yards to again pull the Colonels to within 35-28. But, Kettle Run would score on a 52-yard Tapscott TD catch on its next possession at the 4:28 mark of the third quarter and would finish the game with 19 unanswered points by adding two fourth-quarter TDs. Tapscott had four catches for 164 yards and two TDs.

It was a tough loss, but Morgan saw plenty of positives.

“I thought our offensive line improved this week,” Morgan said. “I thought our running backs made some really nice cuts and broke some tackles so it was a good game to build on.

“We’ve still got six games left and some good football teams down the road but there are some teams that are also struggling so we’re not the only ones. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We’ve just got to come back to work tomorrow and hopefully next week, we get a victory.”

James Wood will travel to North Hagerstown (Md.) next week for a game that has been moved back one day from Friday to Saturday. Kickoff is at 1 p.m.

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