Week 5 football preview

September 23, 2011

James Wood at Skyline

When: Tonight, 7

Where: Skyline High School in Front Royal

Records: James Wood (2-2, 0-0 Northwestern); Skyline (1-2, 0-0 Northwestern)

Last week: James Wood lost to Hedgesville (W.Va.) 17-3; Skyline beat Brentsville 39-14

Last year: James Wood won 21-10

Preview: Two weeks ago James Wood was riding high as it opened the season with back-to-back wins.

But consecutive losses to Musselman and Hedgesville have the Colonels reeling a bit as they prepare to jump into Northwestern District play with a road game at Skyline.

"We haven't played very well and we haven't coached very well the last couple weeks," said James Wood coach Mike Bolin. "The last couple weeks we've tried to do to much and we've gotten away from what we're good at doing.

"We've focused more on ourselves this week, correcting mistakes that we've made, simplifying things and just having more focus and more intensity."

The Colonels have owned the Hawks in their brief history, winning all four meetings between the two teams by a combined score of 110-35, but Bolin knows the past won't mean anything when his team takes the field tonight.

Coach Heath Gilbert's bunch is coming off a 39-14 win over Brentsville - its first of the season - and he's hoping some of the momentum will carry over.

"Any win is good, especially coming off a 2-8 season like we had last year," Gilbert said. "The kids have been working extremely hard and it's nice to see that hard work pay off."

The Hawks are running a lot more read-option plays out of their new pistol offense and Gilbert says he's seen improvement with each passing game, meaning the Colonels will have to be disciplined on the defensive side of the ball.

"With offenses like that, you have to make your reads and do your job," Bolin said. "You get in trouble when people try to do too much."

On offense James Wood, which was held to just 40 yards in the second half of last week's 17-3 loss to Hedgesville, will try to get back on track against a Skyline defense that is allowing more than 30 points a game.

"They're going to come after us," Gilbert said. "They always have physical linemen and they've shown they want to run the ball, so establishing the line of scrimmage is going to be big for both teams."