Warriors win another wild one over Wood

October 8, 2011
By Robert Niedzwiecki
The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER- The details of the first 47 minutes might change from year to year, but you can almost always count on this in the final minute of a Sherando-James Wood game: it's going to be wild, it's going to be crazy, it's going to be emotional and it's going to finish by the Warriors' end zone.

Sherando held on for a thrilling 21-14 Northwestern District victory over the Colonels in a James Wood homecoming game at Kelican Stadium by recording a sack on fourth-and-goal from the Warriors' 5 on the game's final play.

In eight meetings over the last six seasons, seven have been decided by six points or less. Six have been decided in the final 13 seconds. Several have been decided on the final play. At least half have ended with James Wood with the ball near the Sherando end zone, threatening to rip the Warriors heart out.

It's no wonder Sherando senior running back Joseph Ojo was thinking, "Oh my goodness, not again" as he watched the action unfold from the sideline. The Warriors, up 21-7 with three minutes left, gave up a 70-yard touchdown drive, failed to recover a Colonels onside kick, then surrendered 57 yards in 53 seconds. But thanks to two incompletions and a sack by senior defensive lineman William Askew on the final play, he could breathe a sigh of relief as the Warriors (4-2, 1-0 Northwestern) improved to 7-1 in their last eight meetings against the Colonels (2-5, 0-2).

"This was crazy," Ojo said. "We knew we didn't have a comfortable lead at all. We knew that they were going to fight hard for this game with Sherando. It's one of the biggest rivalries in this district, and we knew we had to play hard and play all four quarters of football."

James Wood certainly gave a complete effort, which is why the Colonels nearly pulled off an incredible win even though there were so many reasons to be despondent.

Led by Ojo (141 yards and three touchdowns on 33 carries), Sherando ran the ball down the Colonels throats with touchdown drives of 68 yards over 12 plays and 84 yards over 15 plays on its first two drives. The Warriors took particular advantage of the Colonels' right side, which Warriors coach Bill Hall said he thought would be a good matchup for his team coming into the game.

But James Wood stiffened and scored with 20 seconds left in the first half to make it 14-7.

The first 13 minutes of the second half saw the Colonels fail to convert two fourth downs inside the Sherando 35 and fumble once inside the Warriors 10 while Sherando added another touchdown.

But with three minutes left, the Colonels were as resolute as ever.

"These kids always show heart," James Wood coach Mike Bolin said. "They have no idea what the word quit means. They're going to battle against anybody. If doesn't matter if we're going to play the damn Redskins, we're going to battle as hard as we can."

Taking over at his own 30, James Wood quarterback Jake Lewin (17 of 35 for 202 yards, two touchdowns and one interception) had a couple passes dropped, and nearly had a couple picked off.

But he hit three passes in a row over 46 yards, the last from 25 yards out to wide receiver T.J. Bruce (five catches, 85 yards) to make it 21-14 with 1:22 left.

"We didn't put our heads down," Lewin said. "We did a great job blocking, passing and running routes. When we [got that onside kick], we thought we had a chance to win."

Mark Bean was the Colonel who recovered it after the ball first touched another James Wood player, and Lewin proceeded to play even more clutch on the ensuing drive. He hit Bruce for an 11-yarder on fourth-and-8 at the 50, and Bruce for 30 yards on fourth-and-6 at the 35 to get down to the 5.

Lewin spiked the ball with 26 seconds left to stop the clock, but at that point, it was finally the Warriors time to shine again.

Sherando tipped a pass on first down, and Tre Porter swooped in to knock away the deflection as it made its way toward tight end Mel Savarese.

The Warriors then forced a high pass from Lewin to a wide-open Bruce in the back of the end zone by charging at him as he rolled right.

With three seconds left on fourth down, the Warriors locked up all of Lewin's targets to allow Askew to rip down Lewin for an 8-yard loss and set off a wild celebration.

"I was just thinking, 'Keep going until it's over,'" Askew said. "Keep going after the quarterback until he gets rid of the ball. We had great coverage on that last play, and that helped me get that sack."

For Hall, it was a little closer than he would have liked, but he'll take it.

"I thought we played really well," Hall said. "We had the ball with four minutes to go, and we just need to finish right there.

"Give a lot of credit to their kids, James Wood did a good job of finishing, and I was proud of the way our guys fought a lot of adversity at the end."

It was the the fifth straight loss for the Colonels, but Bolin thinks if his team continues to play like it did Friday, it will be just fine.

"If we play like this the next three [games], we should be in every single game," said Bolin, whose team had a 349-309 yardage edge. "That's the bottom line."

- Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.