By Ben Brooks
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NOKESVILLE -- It took a while for James Wood's offense to get started, but once it did the Colonels rolled to an efficient 40-7 non-district high school football victory over host Brentsville on Friday night.

The Tigers, who played less than a week after the death of one of their own, senior Austin Trenum, scored the game's first points on a Will Bullock 2-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter. After that, however, it was all James Wood.

The Colonels (3-2), who snapped a two-game losing streak in the process, answered just over three minutes later with the first of their 40 unanswered points. Chris Skinner's 17-yard touchdown run, the first of his two scores, capped a 69-yard drive that pulled
James Wood within a point. Then late in the half, the Colonels struck again on quarterback Matt Copley's 5-yard scoring toss to Mel Savarese to put Wood on top for good.

"That's been our M.O. this year," Colonels coach Mike Bolin said of his team's slow starts. "We just haven't come out fast. We kind of got better as we went along."

If the Colonels hadn't already seized momentum with their go-ahead score just before halftime, they certainly did with some special teams trickery early on in the third quarter. Holding a 13-7 lead and faced with a fourth-and-3 from its own 46-yard line, James Wood called for a fake punt. Tanner Rutherford took the direct snap from his upback position, followed his blocking up front, and rambled 29 yards for a first down. Five plays later, Skinner scored on an 11-yard run to make it 19-7. "We don't do much with special teams," Bolin said. "We're pretty basic. It was just a situation that called for it. We wanted to go up by two scores. It was the right distance and right part of the field."

Even though Rutherford knew the fake punt was in the playbook's bag of tricks, he was a little surprised when it was called.

"We've been practicing it for about a week and a half," he said. "I just didn't think we'd run it in a game."

From there, points came in a hurry. Copley hit T.J. Bruce perfectly in stride down the right sideline for a 79-yard scoring play less than two minutes after Skinner's score. Aaron Clark added a 31-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter, and backup quarterback Jake Lewin's 1-yard plunge early in the fourth quarter rounded out the scoring. Lewin's score was set up by Chad Potter's 72-yard punt return.

Copley was particularly happy to be back in action after missing last week's 19-0 loss to Warren County with a rib injury. The senior was 6-of-9 passing for 137 yards and two touchdowns. He shook off two early interceptions to direct a James Wood offense that racked up 332 yards Friday (188 rushing and 144 passing).

"I felt good all through the week," said Copley, who also added 32 yards rushing while playing with extra rib protection. "There were a couple of hits I felt, but it's pretty much healing."

"We told him this week that if he's going to play that we couldn't change what we do," Bolin said. "He's such a leader for us. He stepped up big tonight. He's one of those kids who plays within himself. He'll nickel and dime you for awhile, but when he gets his opportunity for something deep he'll take it."

As excited as Bolin was to see his team get back on the winning track, his joy was tempered by thoughts of what the Tigers must have been going through. In a tribute to Trenum, whose death was reportedly a suicide, the Tigers took the game's first play from scrimmage one man down. Quarterback K.C. Willard turned to hand off to the empty backfield spot, which would normally have been occupied by Trenum, and then took a knee.

"You feel for them," Bolin said of the Tigers (1-4). "When you hear something like that, it just breaks your heart. I can't imagine what they're going through."