Judges set series records for scoring, margin of victory in beating Colonels

WINCHESTER — Despite making one stop on defense in the first half, the James Wood football team found itself on the precipice of going into halftime down only three points as it lined up for a first-down play at the Handley 7-yard line with 16 seconds left.

In those final 16 seconds, the Colonels' nearly 16 minutes of possession time to that point was essentially rendered moot.

Gavin Williams jumped in front of a receiver at the 1-yard line and returned it 99 yards for a touchdown as time expired to give the Judges a 17-point halftime lead. Handley continued to pile on the points from there to finish with a 57-16 victory on Saturday in the Judges' Hall of Fame game at James R. Wilkins Jr. Stadium.

It's the most points either team has scored in the 62-game history of the high school rivalry and the biggest margin of victory at 41 points. Both the 1964 and 1994 Handley teams beat James Wood by 39 points, with the state champion 1994 Judges squad setting the previous series standard of 52 points. Handley now leads the series 43-19-1 after capturing the Class 4 Northwestern District opener for both teams.

In the locker room, the Judges (4-1) were clearly enjoying themselves after beating the Colonels (3-2). For the first time since 2021, both teams came into this matchup with winning records against each other.

"Coming out on top with such a big win means a lot to us," freshman quarterback Triston Darling said.

Handley recorded 423 yards — including 404 on 33 carries — and received two rushing TDs each from Darling (13 carries, 193 yards), senior running back Hassan Akanbi (12 carries, 117 yards) and No. 2 quarterback Jack Prosser, who had a 2-yard TD in the first half and 43-yard TD to close the scoring.

James Wood had some success moving the ball in the first half, but the junior safety Williams' interception return provided a dramatic change in the feel of the game.

With an empty backfield on the left hash mark, the Colonels' fateful play started with four receivers to the right and one on the left before one receiver was sent in motion to the left. James Wood quarterback Owen Neal (18 of 29 for 159 yards, 15 carries for 106 yards) looked to hit the middle of his three receivers on the right in the slot, but Williams cut in front of the receiver and leaped up to catch it at the 1-yard line.

"I saw the receiver cut in, and I knew it was man coverage," Williams said. "I just bit down on the slant route and just took it all the way."

Williams ran straight ahead into mostly daylight. The only person who needed blocking was Neal, and linebacker Ze'Quon Williams took care of that to help Williams to his TD. After the third of Josh Newcome's five extra-point makes, Handley was up 27-10 at the half.

"[That touchdown] really helped us to lock in and bring more momentum into the second half to really put us up more," Williams said.

It's the second straight week the Judges have returned an interception for a touchdown. Williams tied for second in the area with five interceptions last year, and he now has two interceptions this season, the most on the team.

"Gavin's very instinctive," Handley coach Jake Smith said. "He always has a way, a knack, of finding the football. We needed that play, and it was a big moment. He stepped up and read the route correctly, and jumped in front of it. To be able to finish that interception with a score before the half was huge. It was a giant momentum shift swinging into halftime."

James Wood gained a solid 151 yards to Handley's 175 in the first 24 minutes, with 85 coming on the ground.

The Colonels had a 15-play, 63-yard drive on their second possession that ended with a 35-yard Aidan Bell field goal that cut their deficit to 6-3 with 2:08 left in the first quarter. They took a 10-6 lead when they converted Kaden McCullough's interception into a 74-yard drive that ended after 11 plays with Vincent Salvati scoring from 2 yards out with 7:02 left in the second quarter.

Darling's interception on Handley's second possession would be the last of his three passing attempts on Saturday, and with good reason.

The Judges were almost unstoppable running the ball — particularly by using the entire width of the field on their outside runs — and averaged 12.2 yards per carry. Handley had 14 runs of 10 yards or more. Offensive linemen Jaishaun Offutt, Jaiquan Offutt, Tyler Davis, Xavier Lee and Matt Bosshard and the tight ends Williams and Ryan Weant paved the way.

"I did a couple of things differently as far as running the ball based on what they were giving us," Smith said. "I thought our kids executed it well. I thought our kids were going to have an advantage of their defensive ends and our offensive line, so [the outside is] where we attacked the defense for most of the game."

Handley put the game away by scoring on its first two possessions of the second half, both to the right side. Akanbi had a 20-yard TD run at the 10:24 mark of the third, and Darling had a 79-yard TD run in which he was nearly pushed out of bounds, but he kept his balance near the Judges' 40 and tight-roped along the sideline. He ran the rest of the way untouched to make 43-10 at the 5:01 mark of the third.

"[Darling's] good," James Wood coach Todd Wilson said. "You look like you got him hemmed in, and he makes one little shake and he's gone."

The Judges would take a 50-10 lead into the fourth quarter. Kettle Run outscored the Colonels 27-7 in the third quarter of a 54-14 win the previous week, this after James Wood struggled with turnovers.

"Handley's a great football team," Wilson said. "They're going to make a good run in the playoffs. Hat's off to them. But we've got to do a better job of bouncing back from adversity."

Star linebacker Jo-Jo Johnson gashed the Colonels up the middle on his three carries. He opened the scoring with an 8-yard TD run that made it 6-0 just 2:57 into the game. On the possession that gave Handley the lead for good, he had back-to-back runs of 12 runs and 9 yards to set up Darling's 19-yard run to the left in which he had excellent blocking at the line and downfield, with receiver Will Yoder blocking a defender in the end zone.

Johnson ran 50 times for 300 yards and six TDs last year, but Saturday marked his first time carrying the ball this season. Smith said it was a good fit to give Johnson the ball in the situations Handley did based on the Judges' personnel grouping and what the Colonels showed defensively.

Prosser scored every time he ran with the ball. His first TD made it 20-10 with 2:28 left in the second quarter, and his last set the scoring and margin of victory records in the series. The senior also had two two-point conversion runs in the third quarter and completed an 8-yard pass on his one throw.

"Jack works extremely hard and does a great job in practice," Smith said. "He got some opportunities today and made the most of them, and also did some blocking in our heavy package."

With the help of a late 65-yard run by Neal in the final minute, James Wood finished with 329 yards. The Colonels played without offensive lineman Timber Hough, but Wilson said he was impressed with junior Stewart Wiley in his first varsity start. Overall, Wilson said the Colonels did a better job of giving Neal time to throw in the pocket this week compared to the Kettle Run game.

"We were worried going into this game, because we hadn't protected [Neal] well last week," Wilson said. "The O-line did a very good job this week of protecting him. I thought our entire offensive line did a good job in pass pro and run."

Wilson said James Wood's young team doesn't have a lot of depth, so he needs to see a lot of determination from his players to make up for that.

"We feel [the younger players] are talented," Wilson said. "They just have to do a better job of giving effort for four quarters."

Kobe Mason had 58 yards on 14 carries for the Colonels. Aidric Yurish had six catches for 59 yards and Xavier Price had six receptions for 45 yards. Jeremiah Hodel had a 7-yard TD run with 3:42 left.

James Wood travels to Meridian on Friday. Handley is off next week and is next in action on Oct. 11 at Fauquier.

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