Wood evens record with win over Meridian

WINCHESTER — Looking to snap a two-game losing streak in which it gave up nearly 100 points, the James Wood football team took on a team it hadn't faced in 54 years on Friday night.

The Colonels and Meridian (formerly George Mason) hadn't met on the football field since the late 1960s, but the Colonels picked right up where the teams of legendary coach Walter Barr left off and ran their winning streak to seven against the Mustangs.

Wood overcame two early first-quarter deficits and scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns en route to a 28-16 Homecoming victory at Kelican Stadium.

"It's Homecoming and I've been coaching long enough to know there's a lot of distractions going on throughout the week," James Wood coach Todd Wilson said. "The guys are thinking about the dance and have a million things running through their heads.

"It's a big win. We faced adversity. A lot of it was self-inflicted, but I was proud of the guys. We never really got rattled, we stayed the course. We just needed to execute a little bit better."

Senior running back Elijah Richards led the way for the Colonels (3-3). He picked up 150 yards on 22 carries, nearly outrushing the Mustangs (2-3) on his own. James Wood rushed for 243 yards as a team.

Richards' two biggest runs came on Wood's final possession after the Mustangs had cut the lead to 21-16 with a little more than three minutes remaining. He opened the drive with a 20-yard run into Mustangs territory. One play later, he took it 33 yards to the 2. Dominik Ramirez plunged in on the following play for the clinching score with 1:18 left.

"It feels amazing," said Richards of the win. "When the linemen are pushing their guys around it's really easy to run through the big gaps. It's really the lineman up front carrying the game."

All 16 of Meridian's points scored were a direct result of James Wood mistakes.

On the first play from scrimmage, Meridian sophomore Domanic Zacharias-Martin intercepted Owen Neal's pass and returned it to the Colonels' 27. Junior running back Alden Harrison broke loose for a 26-yard touchdown two plays later. The extra point was blocked but the Colonels were down 6-0 less than a minute into the game.

James Wood answered on its next possession. The Colonels put together a five-play, 64-yard drive (all runs) and took the lead 7-6 on Kobe Mason's 45-yard run and Chris Viera's extra point with 9:05 left in the first quarter.

James Wood started its next drive at its own 3 after a punt. On second-and-5, Neal was unable to cleanly handle a bad snap. By the time he was able to retrieve the ball, he was greeted by a host of Mustangs and sacked for a safety, giving the lead back to Meridian at 8-7, which was the score at the end of the first quarter.

With 3:29 left in the half, the Colonels embarked on an 84-yard TD drive. Mason had a 39-yard burst, Richards added a 22-yard run. Ramirez closed it out with a eight-yard run on fourth-and-4 from the 17 and a nine-yard TD run with 1:18 left in the half. The kick was blocked but Wood had a 13-8 halftime lead.

The score stayed that way until the Colonels took over on their 11 with a little less than three minutes remaining in the third quarter and put together the drive of the game.

James Wood marched 89 yards in 11 plays and took a 21-8 lead with 11:05 left when the Colonels rolled the dice on fourth-and-5 from the Mustangs' 10. Neal dropped back and found senior Casey Floyd coming across the middle in the end zone for the score. On the two-point conversion Neal again found Floyd.

After Zacharias-Martin returned an interception to the Colonels' 23, quarterback Alexander Jacobson eventually scored from two yards out to make it 21-16 with 3:13 left in the game.

A short kick gave the Colonels the ball at their 42, setting them up for the drive that put the game away.

Ramirez only had 22 yards on five carries but scored twice. Mason added 71 yards on 10 carries and a score. Harrison led the way for the Mustangs with 90 yards on 17 carries and a TD. Omar Dabbourah added 46 yards on 20 carries.

"We preach a lot around here it's team first, it's about us," Wilson said. "If we get things cleaned up on our end, we're a pretty good football team. We felt like we let one slip away from us last week (a 42-28 loss to Handley).

"We feel good about where we're at as a program and what we're building here. The guys are working hard and we've got kids that show up every day looking to get better and that's all you can ask as a coaching staff."

The Colonels next face Frederick County rival Sherando (4-2) on Friday.