Wildcats rally past James Wood 29-21

October 1, 2011
By KEVIN TRUDGEON
The Winchester Star

FRONT ROYAL- Needing five yards to keep their comeback hopes alive, the James Wood Colonels dialed up a play that had been working for them all night long.

Sitting on fourth-and-5 and 31 yards from a tying score, James Wood coach Mike Bolin called for a reverse to senior wide receiver Chad Potter - a play that had yielded rushes of 23, 16 and 17 yards up to that point.

This time, though, Warren County was ready.

"As soon as I moved, they called 'Danger' or something and they called my number and they were just all over it," said Potter, who could not get around the right edge and was stopped for just a one-yard gain and a game-ending turnover-on-downs.

The final defensive stand helped the Wildcats pull out a 29-21 win over the Colonels on their Homecoming night Friday.

"In hindsight I knew they were going to be ready for it, but we were averaging 15 or 20 yards a pop on that reverse," said Bolin about the fourth-down play call. "When your backs are against the wall you go with what you do best and we just didn't convert."

It was a bitter end to an otherwise inspiring performance for a James Wood (2-4, 0-1 Northwestern District) team that led 14-0 midway through the second quarter and was locked in a 21-21 tie late in the fourth quarter in its quest to snap a three-game losing streak. Much like they did a week earlier when they took a 17-3 lead into the locker room at halftime against Skyline, the Colonels jumped out to a quick start.

On only their second possession of the game, James Wood drove 56 yards on eight plays, recovering their own fumbles twice and getting on the scoreboard first when senior running back Aaron Clark (21 carries, 69 yards) burst threw the line untouched for a 13-yard touchdown run.

A Warren County (5-0) three-and-out later, the Colonels were at it again as Potter converted a third-and-16 with a 23-yard run on a reverse around the left side and Clark punched it in from one-yard out to put his team up 14-0 early in the second quarter.

Unfortunately for James Wood, the similarities to the game against Skyline did not stop after the fast start as the host Wildcats came roaring back with two touchdowns in the final three minutes of the second quarter - the first on a six-yard run by running back Gage Steele (21 carries, 109 yards) and the second on a five-yard pass from quarterback Tyler Post to wide receiver Matthew Nicholson - to force a 14-14 tie heading into halftime.

"We did the same thing last week, we got the ball moving, we went up [17-3] in the first half and then we stopped moving the ball and our defense slowed down and the same thing happened tonight," Potter said.

Coming out of halftime the Colonels would control the ball in the third quarter, running 21 plays compared to just three for Warren County, but they found themselves trailing 21-14 heading into the fourth thanks to a 76-yard punt return by Nicholson.

A 43-yard pass from senior quarterback Jake Lewin to Potter (four catches for 86 yards and six rushes for 64 yards) tied the game up again, but the James Wood defense could not come up with a stop when they needed it most.

Starting at its own 9-yard line, Warren County drove 91 yards on 11 plays as Post completed three passes for 69 yards and capped the drive with a one-yard quarterback sneak with 2:23 remaining in the game.

The Colonels would make one last push, with Lewin connecting with Potter on a 10-yard pass on third-and-15 to set up a manageable fourth down, but the Warren County defense would hold from there.

"We had that schemed up all week, we just didn't execute it the times before that, but thank goodness we did on that last play," said Warren County coach Tony Tallent about the fourth-down reverse call. "It was about the way we practiced this week, we had one really good practice and the last time they ran [the reverse] we had one really good read on it."

Lewin finished 10 for 14 for 118 yards and the score and Post was 10 for 17 for 135 yards.

James Wood totaled 278 yards of offense, compared to 301 for Warren County.

With their losing streak now at four games and a Homecoming game against Sherando next week, Bolin said his team needs to stick together.

"When you start to lose, it's a great deal of adversity and adversity is hard to deal with sometimes," Bolin said. "We've got to stick together, play our game and get ready for next week."

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