James Wood takes on fellow unbeaten Kettle Run

Kettle Run (2-0) at James Wood (3-0) When: Friday, 7 p.m. Where: James Wood’s Kelican Stadium Series history: Kettle Run leads 5-1 Last week: Kettle Run beat Handley 34-28; James Wood beat Skyline 56-21. Players to watch: Kettle Run: QB Jacob Mulhern; RB/DB Colton Quaker; WR Chance Yoder; DL Justin Rogers; DL Jayden Booth. James Wood: LB/HB Vincent Salvati; QB Owen Neal; OL/DL Jordyn Sweetser; RB/DL Dominik Ramirez; RB Kobe Mason.

Improved player health helped the James Wood High School football team enjoy its best offensive performance of the season last week against Skyline.

The Colonels will need everything to click if they hope to achieve their best start since 2009 this week when it hosts its toughest foe yet in Kettle Run (2-0) at 7 p.m. on Friday at Kelican Stadium.

“The guys are working really hard, and hopefully, they’re understanding that their hard work is paying off,” James Wood coach Todd Wilson said. “We’ve got seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshmen making plays for us. We are 3-0, but we’ve made our fair share of mistakes throughout the season. But we’re coaching them really hard, and they’re responding to hard coaching.”

James Wood is 3-0 for just the second time since that 2009 season (the fall 2021 season being the other occasion), when it started 5-0.

Kettle Run is coming off a 34-28 win over Handley. Quarterback Jake Mulhern completed 20 of 24 passes for 273 yards and three touchdowns and Colton Quaker ran for 122 yards and two TDs as part of 423-yard effort for the entire team.

After averaging 250 yards and 18.5 points per game through two weeks, James Wood finally broke out in last week’s 56-21 win over Skyline. The Colonels gained 514 yards on 52 plays.

Senior running back Kobe Mason recorded 169 yards and two TDs on 15 carries. Mason left the season opener against Warren County in the third quarter with an injury after gaining 34 yards on seven carries and did not play against Brentsville in Week 2.

“He’s a guy that we’ve really counted on to step in and fill that role where Elijah Richards left off last year,” Wilson said.

Xavier Price — who had four receptions for 125 yards against Skyline — was also injured in the Warren County game and did not play against Brentsville. Kaden McCullough (eight catches for 99 yards, 18 tackles) didn’t play in the second half of the Brentsville game due to injury.

Wilson said he doesn’t expect 500 yards to be the norm, but it was good to see the Colonels recreate the type of production they had in the preseason.

“Getting all three of those guys back for Skyline was very important,” Wilson said. “[That game] was definitely a sign of improvement compared to the two weeks prior. We had big, explosive plays in both of our scrimmage games. I’m not really sure what caused us to be stagnant those first two [regular-season] games, but [the Skyline game] was a little bit more on point with what I’m hoping our offense looks like.”

Quarterback Owen Neal passed for 213 yards against Skyline. Vincent Salvati ran for three TDs and had 16 yards on seven carries overall in James Wood’s heavy package. The Colonels usually have Dominik Ramirez taking snaps when they use the heavy package in part because they want to keep Salvati fresh on defense (his 29 tackles lead the team). But Salvati — who scored against Warren County in the 2023 season opener — is always an option to carry the ball.

“He scored the first time we used him [against Skyline], and we just kept with Vinny the rest of the game in those short-yardage packages,” Wilson said.

James Wood will have its hands full with a Kettle Run defense that includes Quaker, a linebacker/defensive back.

“Their guys run to the ball,” Wilson said. “We’ve got to sustain blocks and get to the second level. Not only our five offensive linemen, who played a much better game [against Skyline], but our receivers as well. We tried to get the ball to the edge a little bit last week. If you don’t have receivers that are willing to block out there on the edge, it doesn’t matter if you get to the edge, because there’s going to be someone there to tackle them. But our receivers did a much better job last week.”

A year ago when Kettle Run defeated James Wood 56-20, Mulhern threw for 270 yards and four TDs and Quaker ran for 110 yards and two TDs as the Cougars racked up 550 yards of total offense.

James Wood is giving up 236.7 yards per game. Defensive linemen Jordyn Sweetser has five sacks as part of his 20 tackles, and Ramirez has three as part of his 25.

Wilson said his players are doing a good job of carrying out their assignments and making plays they need to make when they do that.

But he said the Colonels can’t afford to repeat some of the mistakes they’ve had earlier this season against Kettle Run given how well the Cougars block and create ways to put Mulhern and Quaker in favorable positions by moving the pocket and doing things like counter plays.

He said Brentsville scored a TD when James Wood only had 10 players on the field, which the Tigers picked up on and attacked where the missing player should have been. Wilson said Skyline scored a TD when a James Wood player had a missed assignment, and the Hawks took advantage of some Colonels’ tackling issues.

“Our guys are playing extremely hard,” Wilson said. “But we tell guys all the time that teams are too good not to capitalize on missed alignments/assignments. We’re not doing a lot of that, but when we do, teams make us pay. We didn’t do the best job of tackling in space last week, and that’s an area of emphasis in practice this week.”

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