Sherando not overlooking county rival James Wood

October 7, 2011
By Robert Niedzwiecki
The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER- The Sherando football team got its wake-up call in a loss against Loudoun County Sept. 21, but there's never any danger of sleeping on tonight's opponent.

"We were just trying to get better [in our bye week]," Warriors senior running back Joseph Ojoh said. "Even though it was a bye week, we knew we had to step up to the challenge, because we knew we had James Wood next on the schedule.

"We didn't have anybody on the schedule that week, but we knew we had to work to get better to play James Wood."

Six of the last seven meetings between Sherando and James Wood have been decided by seven points or less, and five of those six games - including their 2007 and 2009 playoff meetings - haven't been decided until the final 13 seconds.

That's one of the reasons why James Wood coach Mike Bolin brought out the popular "throw out the records" phrase in looking ahead to the 7 p.m. game at Kelican Stadium.
Certainly, the Colonels (2-4, 0-1 Northwestern) would rather have Sherando's mark (3-2, 0-0). But that was also the case last year, when a 3-2 James Wood team nearly knocked off 5-0 Sherando, only to be stopped on fourth down at the Warriors' 11 with 13 seconds left in a 14-7 loss.

But even though the Colonels come into this game with a four-game losing streak, James Wood's coaches and players say they're not discouraged.

For starters, Bolin felt James Wood played more than well enough to win in last week's 29-21 loss to a strong Warren County team. The Colonels led 14-0 in the second quarter, and even after the Wildcats rallied to tie the game at 21-21, Bolin felt his defense was in position to make plays on the Wildcats' game-winning drive.

"We played better on defense - the D-line played a lot better," said senior linebacker Tanner Rutherford of the overall effort. "Offense, we blocked a lot better and we were able to run the ball a lot better."

Another reason for optimism is that for the most part, the Colonels control their own destiny. If the season ended today, James Wood would be a playoff team - the Colonels are ranked eighth in the Region II Division 4 playoff ratings. (Sherando is fourth.)

"You've got to play every game like it's your first game," James Wood senior wide receiver/cornerback Chad Potter said. "We still have four more games to play, we can still make it to the playoffs, and we can go on from there."

The Warriors are not only in good shape in terms of power rating (they have the highest power rating of any Northwestern District team), but also in terms of psyche.

After being shutout 28-0 by a powerful Loudoun County team that's tied for the top ranking in Region II Division 4, the Warriors piled up 300 rushing yards in a 36-9 win over Jefferson (W.Va.) in their last game two weeks ago.

"That Loudoun County game was a huge wakeup to everybody," Sherando coach Bill Hall said. "Sometimes we rely on our name as opposed to what it takes to build our name. We can't just show up and expect to be successful."

Hall thought the Warriors had a particularly good week of practice during their bye, and Ojoh thought the offensive line took the momentum of its performance against Jefferson and carried it into the past two weeks of practice.

"They worked hard this week and made big strides," said Ojoh, who leads the area with 596 yards and nine touchdowns on the ground. "They were blocking harder, and they just knew they just had to go hard to the whistle each and every play. It all starts up front, and that's what makes me bust long runs."

As Hall points out, it pretty much always comes down to how well the offensive and defensive lines performs in Sherando and James Wood games.

Bolin said there aren't many teams around like Loudoun County, but the Colonels need to get a performance from their offensive line similar to what the Raiders had.

"They came off the ball and moved Sherando's defensive front," Bolin said. "The three linebackers Sherando has are fast, athletic and strong. You've got to get a push up front. If you stalemate up front and you allow those three guys to come and go and knife in as they please, they're going to eat you up.

"We've got to come off the ball, explode, explode, and move people. Whether we can or not, we're going to find out [tonight]."

The Colonels were able to rush for 159 yards last week, nearly 50 yards better than their previous best in their four-game losing streak and their best effort since gaining 215 yards against Loudoun Valley on Sept. 2.

The Warriors defense - which welcomed back free safety Tre Porter against Jefferson - could be without strong safety and backup quarterback Reid Entsminger, who did not dress for practice Wednesday and had bandaging on his right hand and wrist.

Bolin thinks Sherando might be even more athletic than its 2007 team that played for a state championship, so the Colonels will have to limit big plays.

The Warriors are more than capable of getting those in the passing game too. When Washington loaded up to stop the run against Sherando on Sept. 9, quarterback Jalen Brisco threw for 234 yards and touchdown passes covering 56, 68 and 52 yards in the first half.

But more than anything, the James Wood-Sherando rivalry is about energy and desire.

The Colonels anticipation for this game is one of the reasons why they're not discouraged about their 2-4 start, and Sherando's anticipation is why it's not dwelling on James Wood's record.

"You have to know what animal it is that you're facing," Hall said. "The fact that they've lost that many games - they have a lot of pride in what they're doing over there.

"They're going to come out and give it everything they've got. They have everything to play for, just like we do."

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