BERRYVILLE — After Friday’s high school football game was over, James Wood coach Todd Wilson said, “We are a lot better Week 1 this year than we were last year.”
In more than doubling their margin of victory in last year’s season opener over Warren County (a 21-0 score) by the end of the third quarter against Clarke County, the Colonels certainly set a high standard for themselves for the rest of 2025.
In the season opener for both teams, James Wood took control early and went on to a 44-3 win at Wilbur M. Feltner Stadium in the first meeting between the two schools since 2008. The Colonels lead the series 15-12-1.
“Our first game against Warren County last year, we struggled offensively,” Wilson said. “Defense played pretty well last year. Tonight, it was more of a team effort. We did really well on special teams, we did well on offense, and we did well on defense.”
James Wood had 342 total yards and rushed for 294 yards on 33 carries against the Eagles, who managed just 75 yards on 44 rushing attempts and no passing yards.
James Wood quarterback Owen Neal (nine carries for 81 yards, one touchdown) led a group of five players who rushed for more than 25 yards. Jackson Ledford (six carries for 75 yards) ran for two TDs and Xavier Price had a 10-yard rushing TD and 18-yard TD reception from Neal (2 of 7, 48 yards, one interception).
The Colonels scored the first nine points while only having 15 yards of offense at the time, and led 23-3 at the half and 44-3 with 1:29 left in the third quarter.
It was Clarke County’s first regular-season loss since Oct. 20, 2023 against Strasburg. Last year’s team was a senior-laden one that went undefeated, while this year’s team has just one returning starter on offense and defense (lineman Joseph Stem, who’s playing different positions from last year). Stem is also one of just five seniors on the squad.
“[James Wood] is physical, bigger, and they ran hard,” Clarke County coach Casey Childs said. “There was a huge size difference and age difference tonight, and you can look on the field and see that. But we’re going to get better. We’re going to get better each and every week, and we’re going to keep fighting.”
Defense and special teams were the biggest reasons for James Wood’s early lead.
A 5-yard sack by linebacker Logan Lafollette at the Clarke County 14 resulted in a second three-and-out for the Eagles to start the game. A high, looping snap to punter Drake Barton followed, and it went off his hands and to the ground. The ball bounced out of the end zone after Barton and James Wood dove to recover it, resulting in a safety and a 2-0 Colonel lead at the 6:59 mark of the first quarter.
Kaden McCullough got the resulting free kick at the James Wood 30-yard line and returned it to the Clarke County 8, with a horse-collar penalty moving the ball half the distance to the goal and giving the Colonels the ball at the 4-yard line. After taking the shotgun snap, Neal waited a moment before running forward and scoring. The first of Aidan Bell’s six extra-point kicks made it 9-0 with 6:44 left in the opening quarter.
“I’m sad I didn’t quite go all the way [into the end zone], but we were close,” said McCullough, a wide receiver and linebacker, of his kickoff return. “I’m happy to see where I go in the future [with kickoff returns]. I give credit to the blocking. They did a great job and did what they were supposed to do, and they got their man.”
Clarke County would answer with a nine-play, 39-yard drive that ended with a Barton 40-yard field goal with 12 seconds left in the first quarter to cut the Colonels’ lead to 9-3. But outside of that possession and the Eagles’ final drive of the game against the James Wood reserves, it was a massive struggle for the Eagles to move the ball.
“Our scout team offense really prepared us [for] what they were going to run,” McCullough said. “I’m leaving the honor to them, because they really showed us what we were supposed to do. They did a great job, and I think we executed our jobs really well on defense.”
Wilson also praised James Wood’s scout work.
“We’re at the point in our program where we’ve got starters running our scout offense,” Wilson said. “When we’ve got good against good, it gives us a good look for our defensive unit to understand what their reads are. Linebackers understand what their reads were and what their keys were, and tonight, it showed.”
Childs said the Eagles have work to do on offense.
“We just didn’t maintain any blocks,” Childs said. “We made initial good contact, and then we just didn’t maintain. A couple of times the holes were there, and we’d cut stuff up a little early, and that’s just lack of experience.”
After Barton’s field goal, James Wood essentially locked up the game with TDs on its next two drives.
A 10-yard run around the right side on a jet sweep by Price made it 16-3 with 9:15 left in the second quarter. Price’s run capped a 10-play, 70-yard drive.
Clarke County had a chance to keep its deficit manageable at halftime, but Neal rifled a throw over the middle to Price on a post pattern on a fourth-and-7 throw from the 18 to make it 23-3 with 5:33 left in the second quarter.
“I just had to get in my drop, make my reads, and then deliver the ball where it needed to be,” Neal said.
James Wood didn’t relax with its lead at halftime.
Three straight runs by Dominik Ramirez (six carries, 42 yards) netted 31 yards, then Neal gained 20 yards on a run to the Clarke County 1. Neal would leave the game with a lower-leg injury after that. The Eagles then denied James Wood on three straight runs, but Ledford finally powered the ball in from the 1 on fourth down to make it 30-3.
James Wood would follow with a 29-yard TD run up the middle by Ledford (six carries, 76 yards) and a 13-yard TD run by McCullough on a jet sweep to the left.
Behind the blocking of an offensive line that includes right tackle Stewart Wiley, right guard Donny Ramirez, center Colton Knisley, left guard Timber Hough and left tackle Lane Herring, James Wood will look to hurt teams by putting the ball in a lot of different hands in the run game. Jeremiah Hodel added six carries for 59 yards.
“Our line has worked extremely hard in the offseason,” Neal said. “They’ve known their assignments and are working together. They’re very good at working as one unit, and it makes our job running the ball really easy.”
Childs would have liked to see his team make things a little harder on Wood’s ball carriers on Thursday.
“We’ve got to tackle,” Childs said. “We had them at the line of scrimmage or in the backfield at least five or six times, and next thing you know, they’re 20 yards down the field.”
Childs said the Eagles are trying to keep things in perspective with the least-experienced team in their run of winning seasons that started in 2007.
“We’re trying to preach patience,” Childs said. “We’ve got great kids. The first half, I thought we played extremely hard. But then we had some guys cramping and getting dinged up, we had to play guys at different positions, and it kind of snowballed us. This was the first time a lot of these kids were even on a field on Friday night because they were playing JV last year. I’m proud of the kids for competing.”
Grady Ferrell had 66 yards on 28 carries for Clarke County and Brayden Roper had an interception.
Both James Wood and Clarke County will have their Hall of Fame games next Friday. The Colonels host Dominion and the Eagles will take on Fort Defiance.
— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at rniedzwiecki@winchesterstar.com
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