October 22, 2010

By David Selig - The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER- As Curtis Daily sat in the Millbrook football coaches' office doing an interview Tuesday afternoon, a television in the corner of the room flashed video from the Pioneers' 10-7 win over James Wood last year.

Studying the film of that rainy slugfest will only do so much, as the Frederick County rivals bring vastly different offenses into tonight's 7 p.m. meeting at Millbrook.

"I think last year we just pounded it in on them," said Daily, the Pioneers' senior quarterback. "We didn't really have much of a pass threat, I don't think, last year."

Balance was a key word both teams used when describing their offenses heading into tonight.

And both deemed it a "must-win" game.

Millbrook (4-3, 1-0) feels it needs a victory to keep hopes alive of winning its first Northwestern District title, while James Wood (4-3, 1-1) likely needs a win to stay in the eighth and final postseason spot in Region II Division 4.

"It's absolutely a must-win game," Colonels coach Mike Bolin said. "They're all must-win games now."

The Pioneers come in having won three straight and four of their past five. Their biggest improvement in recent weeks is the development of their passing game.

Millbrook has only thrown for more than 100 yards once this season (Week 2 against Park View), but in the past four weeks Daily has connected with junior receiver Boomer Kaczmarzewski for a touchdown.

"Me and Boomer, we've always been really good friends, but on the field we're starting to see things together," Daily said. "I think it'll come up the next few weeks, and it'll be a big help for Jordan [Hartman] to open up the run a whole lot more.

"Because, if they come out stacking it up, we're just going to throw it over the top of them, and [Jordan] will be able to go back to his normal run game. It's hard to stop a balanced team like that."

Hartman has rushed for an area-best 1,220 yards (8.2 per carry) and scored 14 touchdowns on the ground.

And Millbrook coach Reed Prosser said the emergence of fullback Drew Braithwaite (165 of his 210 rushing yards have come in the last two weeks) has also helped balance the offense.

"We knew we would be a solid football team when the year started, it just was a bit of a growing process," Prosser said. "We knew that the older kids that we have could make plays. It was just a question of when would the offensive line come around, and when would the young guys come around. And lately both [groups] have played very well."

The Colonels will also be wary of seeing something for the first time, as history shows that the Pioneers often pull something out their bag of tricks for big games.

"You never know," James Wood cornerback Tripp Lewis said. "When we play them, they'll come out with 50 new things, so you can never tell with Millbrook."

The Colonels went to something new in a 21-10 win over Skyline last Friday, but it was more of a return to the old.

After getting 106 yards rushing and two touchdowns from senior Mark Collie, Wood may have finally found a tailback to feature. (Fullback Cory Schrock leads the team with 308 yards rushing and 4 TDs on the season.)

Combine that with the mobility of quarterback Matt Copley, who has the area's top two pass catchers in Chad Potter (18 receptions for 292 yards) and T.J. Bruce (17 for 226), and the Colonels also have a diverse attack. "We're still a run-first team ... but we have spread it out a lot more this year," said Copley, who leads the area with 622 passing yards. "We've got a lot of great athletes that we try to get the ball to as much as we can to make plays. I think we're more of a balanced team this year.

"We're going to throw everything we have at them. They can't just key on one guy like they did last year."

Bolin said his offensive line is also coming together after going through a number of changes brought on by injuries earlier in the season.

For the first time since Bolin joined the staff, the Colonels have been starting a sophomore on the line, 6-foot-2, 220-pound left tackle Chris Alaniz, whom Bolin said has been impressive over the past six games.

As much as the two teams have evolved since the start of the season, there won't be a shortage of familiarity between them.

With a number of the players having attended middle school together, winning the James Wood-Millbrook game is always a top priority for both squads.

"It's always a big rivalry between us," Copley said. "It's local kids against local kids. We're all friends, and we all know each other, so it makes it that much more intense."

NOTE: The Pioneers will be without linebacker Carter Barnett, their second-leading tackler, who is serving a mandatory suspension after being ejected from last week's game. Prosser said it's yet to be determined whether the suspension will be for one game or two.