STERLING — Owen Neal and the James Wood High School football team sure made Neal’s first-quarter interception forgettable.
Led by Neal’s five passing touchdowns and three rushing scores and Xavier Price’s four TDs, the Colonels scored five types of touchdowns en route to a program-record point total in a 77-0 win over Dominion on Thursday night.
The game was called with 3:28 left due to lightning in the area. In the time between Neal’s interception and the point at which the game was called, it was the Colonels who filled the atmosphere with electric moment after electric moment.
“It feels good to know we can achieve something like that,” said Price, a senior wide receiver and defensive back, of the record point total. “Something like that is always great.”
The Colonels’ previous single-game high came last year in a 72-6 win over Warren County, part of a season in which James Wood scored a program-record 456 points. The Colonels also averaged 41.5 points per game, the most in school history for a full season.
With James Wood (2-0) having already scored 63 points in their Week 1 win over Clarke County, the Colonels are showing they very well could have what it takes to break those season-long records again. Especially if their prolific offense gets the type of help it received Thursday night from its defense and special teams against Dominion (0-2).
While James Wood rolled up more than 600 yards of offense against Clarke County, the Colonels’ record-scoring total required just 351 yards from their offense Thursday. Neal completed 14 of 21 passes for 222 yards and ran eight times for 94 yards, while Price caught five passes for 126 yards and three TDs to lead the offensive charge.
Thanks to its defense and special teams, Dominion only gained 26 yards (52 passing, minus-26 rushing), and James Wood’s offense was set up inside the Titan 25 for four of its eight scoring drives.
For three of James Wood’s 11 touchdowns, the Colonels’ defense and special teams handled the scoring directly.
Junior linebacker Jackson Ledford returned an interception 41 yards for a touchdown after James Wood put heavy pressure on Jaden Walker, who was 4 of 17 for 23 yards before exiting the game. Ledford’s return and the third of Draven Hernandez’s 11 extra points made it 21-0 with 4:39 left in the first quarter.
James Wood coach Todd Wilson liked James Wood’s aggressiveness on defense. Fifteen plays resulted in negative yardage.
“That’s what we’re looking for,” Wilson said. “Try to get teams in second-and-long, third-and-long, force their hand a little bit. I like the way we’re playing aggressive up front.”
Junior Cannon Edgerton returned a punt 72 yards for a touchdown with 3:47 left in the second quarter. He started on the right side, ran through the middle, then bounced left before cutting back inside the 15 to make one last player miss. That score made it 49-0.
The second special teams score came from Price to start the second half. He fielded a kickoff on the left side, then ran toward a huge opening on the right side. From there, he only had to make one cutback to beat the kicker at the Dominion 35-yard line. He finished his 86-yard return 13 seconds into the second half.
James Wood was exceptional in kickoff returns last year with Kaden McCullough, who averaged 34.6 yards per return and scored a touchdown on 12 attempts.
But punt returns can be harder to set up, and James Wood didn’t have a punt return TD in 2025. In addition to Edgerton’s return, Aidric Yurish (four catches, 31 yards, 8-yard receiving TD) had a 43-yard punt return to the Dominion 14 to set up James Wood’s first touchdown, a 5-yard run by Neal after he faked a handoff to make it 7-0 with 8:16 left in the first quarter.
“We try to establish as our culture to be aggressive in a lot of capacities, and special teams is one of those areas we’re trying to be a little more aggressive this year than we were last year,” Wilson said.
Covering punts was just one of the Titans’ problems in the punting game. They only averaged 21 yards per attempt, and they had three punts that they simply couldn’t get off.
Dominion’s punter kneeled on the ground at Titans 21 after he scrambled to recover a high snap in the second quarter. He lost 22 yards, and Neal capitalized with a 21-yard rushing TD on the next play to make it 35-0 with 8:57 to go.
Another bad punt snap resulted in an 18-yard loss to the Dominion 24, and that gave Neal an opportunity to connect with Price for a 24-yard TD that made it 56-0 with 27 seconds left in the first half.
The record-breaking score was set up after the Dominion punter dropped the snap. He started to run forward after picking it up, then tried to throw it while being pulled down. The ball deflected up after hitting a crowd of players, then was caught by a Dominion player. He was dropped for a 9-yard loss at the Titan 14.
Two plays later, Neal hit Parker Kerns on a slant for a 6-yard TD with 11:33 left, and Hernandez’s extra point made it 77-0.
Neal had a historic year in 2025 in which he passed for 2,633 yards, 27 touchdowns and five interceptions and carried the ball 139 times for 912 yards and 16 rushing touchdowns. Neal broke school records for passing yardage and passing touchdowns.
As last year showed, interceptions from Neal are a rare thing. He brushed off the one that Kenan Charif grabbed on Thursday spectacularly. It was the first time he had a hand in eight TDs in one game.
“It hurt for a while, because I just made the wrong read,” said Neal of the interception. “But you’ve got to live with it. It’s the first quarter. You’ve got four more quarters to play.”
Neal’s rushing TDs covered 5, 21, and 21 yards, respectively, and his passing scores went for 8, 24, 24, 36 and 6 yards, respectively. The middle three TD throws went to Price.
“I didn’t really have to rush too many times against Clarke County, but I kind of found that rhythm [against Dominion],” Neal said. “I trusted my legs. They were sitting in Cover 4’s, and they took away the deep shot most of the time. But once they had to honor my legs, Xay over top is deadly.”
Price was a touchdown machine last year with 14, and he had 32 catches for 756 yards. He’s prepared himself to have another big year.
“I’m just working on my routes, where to be,” Price said. “How to run them, how to sell them. Stuff like that.”
Neal and Price are part of a dynamic offense where James Wood has a lot of weapons. Providing blocking up front on Thursday were left tackle Lane Herring, left guard Brian Snider, center Timber Hough, right guard Donny Ramirez and right tackle Sawyer Farr.
Wilson wanted those players to get as much time on the field as possible Thursday, noting it was difficult to work on everything the team wanted to work on with four possessions starting inside the Dominion 25. James Wood might not have set out to break its scoring record, but excellent field position and numerous long plays made it happen.
“We rotated guys in during the second half, and scored points on speclal teams,” Wilson said. “And when they botched the punt [in the third quarter], I was actually yelling to not block it and let them kick it, because we wanted to be able to put together some drives tonight. We wanted our guys to be out there, and we want to see our guys work a little bit. It’s nice to have explosive plays, but we understand at some point we’re going to have work more on drives. Next week we have Culpeper. They’re a good team. Week 4, we have Sherando.
“The biggest thing is we had a lot of guys get experience tonight. And outside of some bumps and bruises, we came away injury free, so that’s a blessing.”
Jackson Lang had three catches for 48 yards for James Wood. For Dominion, Saif Sarsouf had 38 yards passing. All-Dulles District running back Will Rivas had three catches for 29 yards but was held to minus-5 yards rushing on 12 carries.
The Colonels will host Culpeper County on Sept. 11.
— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at rniedzwiecki@winchesterstar.com
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