Colonels hope to take advantage of opportunity vs. Liberty

The James Wood football team had a rough outing last week against Jefferson (W.Va.), but that 40-7 defeat will seem like a distant memory if the Colonels can turn things around this week.

James Wood (1-5, 0-2) returns to Class 4 Northwestern District play for the first time since Sept. 23 at 7 p.m. on Friday against Liberty, and it’s essentially a brand-new season.

The Colonels have already played Kettle Run (first in the district) and Sherando (second on a tiebreaker) in district play, and now they’ll play four straight games against district foes in a congested race. There’s just a 1.5-game difference between second and sixth place, the spot James Wood currently occupies.

“I know Kettle Run’s out in front right now, but the district is kind of wide open, because everybody’s kind of hanging out in the middle, seeing what team is going to pick it up or drop off down here in the stretch,” James Wood coach Ryan Morgan said. “That would be huge for us [to get a win]. We told the kids that to a certain degree, we still control our own destiny as far as making the playoffs, since the playoff picture is determined by the district record.

“There’s a chance if the kids pull together and play well for four quarters, then we can make a push to sneak into the playoffs here at the end of the year. But they’ve got to decide to do it on a daily basis.”

Morgan knows the Colonels will have to play a lot better in order to beat Liberty (2-4, 1-1), which is coming off an impressive 35-29 win over Sherando last week.

Morgan thought his defense played well last week, but he thought his team eventually got fatigued against the faster Cougars, which caused a breakdown in fundamentals. Jefferson scored 20 points in the second quarter after a scoreless first quarter, then scored 20 more in the last 13 minutes of the game after James Wood had cut its deficit to 20-7.

A James Wood defense led by junior linebacker Zach Smith (85 tackles, 18 for a loss, 3.5 sacks) and senior linebacker Matt Dueweke (55 tackles) will be tested this week by Liberty quarterback Austin Mawyer.

The sophomore completed 16 of 31 passes for 328 yards and three TDs and rushed for 43 yards and TD in last year’s 42-24 James Wood win, but he appears to be even better this year. He completed 20 of 33 passes for 291 yards, two touchdowns and one interception and rushed for 38 yards and two scores against Sherando.

“Last year you could tell he was a good athlete, but I thought a lot of his throws were late, and he didn’t have a ton of arm strength,” Morgan said. “This year he’s gotten bigger, stronger and faster, and he’s quicker on his reads. He looks like a junior or even a senior out there, because he can throw the ball pretty well and he’s a pretty decent runner. He’s improved a lot.”

The Colonels will also have to be wary of running back Noah Hall (16 carries for 110 yards, four catches for 85 yards vs. Sherando) and wide receiver Tyler Caporaletti (six catches for 98 yards, TD against the Warriors), part of a receiving corps that Morgan says is bigger than the Colonels’ defensive backfield.

“We have to make sure we’re tackling in space,” Morgan said. “We’ve got to do a better job of corralling people and making sure we don’t lose outside contain, which happened too many times last week.”

James Wood will go up against an Eagles defense that gave up 529 yards (283 rushing) to Sherando last week. The Colonels are led by quarterback Jared Neal (76 of 148 for 867 yards, seven TDs and 10 interceptions), running back Elijah Richards (61 carries for 310 yards, one TD) and wide receiver Eli Miller (28 catches, 326 yards, TD).

“We’ve got to do a better job of running the ball,” Morgan said. “Last week we were not nearly as physical on the offensive line as we were against Kettle Run a few weeks ago. Hopefully, we can make some strides there.”

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