The Washington Post - 29.08.2019

THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2019 EZ SU D9

Week 11: St. John’s vs. Gonzaga

(at Catholic University) —

Nov. 9, 3 p.m.

St. John’s, arguably the most hyped team

in the WCAC heading into the season, will

face the conference’s defending

champion to close the year. For Gonzaga,

it’s a chance for quarterback Caleb

Williams and the Eagles to enter the

playoffs on a high note.

Option B: Broad Run at Stone Bridge —

Nov. 8, 7 p.m.

— Michael Errigo

Week 10 : North Point at Northern —

Nov. 1, 7 p.m.

North Point’s near-perfect season ended

with a state championship game

appearance last fall, and it will look to

carry that momentum into this season.

Bringing back quarterback Asa Williams

helps that cause. But the Eagles will

have to fend off Southern Maryland

Athletic Conference contenders such as

Northern to get back to the top.

Option B: Bullis at Landon — Nov. 2, 2 p.m.

Week 9: Good Counsel vs. DeMatha

(at Catholic University) —

Oct. 25, 7 p.m.

This WCAC rivalry headlines a weekend

packed with premier matchups. The

Falcons and Stags both have talent; the

question is whether either can ascend to

the top of their ultracompetitive

conference. Both teams will feature new

quarterbacks and plenty of Division I

prospects on defense.

Option B: Ballou at H.D. Woodson —

Oct. 25, 6 p.m.

Week 8: Georgetown Prep at Landon

— Oct. 19 , 2 p.m.

Landon finished last season with just

one loss. Unfortunately for the Bears, it

was to Georgetown Prep, the eventual

Interstate Athletic Conference champion.

The Little Hoyas’ campaign to repeat will

be led by senior running back Jalen

Hampton, and they must go through the

revenge-minded Bears.

Option B: Fr eedom-Woodbridge at

Woodbridge — Oct. 18, 7 p.m.

Week 7: Madison at Westfield —

Oct. 11, 7 p.m.

The last time these programs met,

freezing rain soaked the field and

Westfield muscled out a win in the region

championship game. Every meeting

seems to turn into a slugfest, and this

one should be no different. Westfield

carries new motivation after its state title

streak was snapped by Freedom-

Woodbridge in December.

Option B: Churchill at Northwest —

Oct. 11, 6:30 p.m.

T.C. Williams —

a watch based on the
Williams, one of the
programs in Virginia, will
games at the St. James, an
performance facility in
field should be a major
school’s aging surface,
have the talent to
away from home even
will take on the
homecoming game.

Glenelg — Oct. 4, 7 p.m.

TO WATCH

JONATHAN NEWTON/THE WASHINGTON POST

Coach Joe Casamento put together a schedule for St. John’s this season

that features four teams ranked in the top eight of the country.

Some of them came on their

own, spurred by the team’s

success, and some had to be

convinced by a coach or a friend.

“A lot of players self-recruit their

own teammates, saying, ‘Football

is awesome; we have a good time,’ ”

Van Acker said. “They say: ‘Look at

what happened last year. Come out

and give it a shot, and let’s keep

this thing rolling.’ ”

The Cavaliers kick off the season

Thursday night against

Annandale.

— Michael Errigo

Dunbar is growing up

At last Dunbar has preseason

optimism, which, as simple as that

might seem, is two years in the

making.

In 2017, Dunbar graduate

Maurice Vaughn took over as

coach. He sensed a toxic culture

and wanted to eradicate it. So he

dismissed the upperclassmen and

restarted the program with

exclusively freshmen.

The result was a two-win season

that didn’t necessarily convince

anyone that the Crimson Tide was

on the right path. Last year,

Dunbar doubled its win total by

going 4-5. This fall, with those

freshmen now juniors, Dunbar

could be dangerous.

“A lot of people, my coaches

included, thought we could’ve won

more if we had kept some of the

older guys, and they were probably

right, but I am trying to establish a

culture,” Vaughn said. “We live in a

society where everybody thinks

you can throw it in the microwave

and it’s going to be ready now, but

it’s a process.”

Is the product ready for 2019? It

will soon become clear, with

Dunbar opening its season Friday

at McKinley Te ch. Vaughn thinks

his players are stronger after what

they have had to endure over the

past two seasons.

“Seeing them get banged up and

crying after games was tough,” he

said, “but that adversity and pain

made them hungry.”

— Tramel Raggs

QO puts it on the line

Quince Orchard returns plenty of

talent from last season’s Maryland

4A championship squad. Marquez

Cooper, one of the area’s most

dynamic running backs, is back,

and the Cougars feature two

touted recruits on defense: Charles

Bell and Demeioun Robinson.

One position group Quince

Orchard is rebuilding, though, is

its offensive line after graduating

four starters.

“The offensive line is like the

heartbeat of your whole team,”

Coach John Kelley said. “They

need reps. They need film work

and classroom work. You aren’t

going to be able to run the ball or

throw the ball without them.”

Cooper ran for 2,021 yards last

season, and Kelley hopes to make

the offense more versatile by

expanding his role as a receiver.

“The one thing I try to tell them

is ‘2018 was awesome and it was

fun, but it’s over,’ ” Kelley said.

“Nobody really cares about last

year at this point.”

— Kyle Melnick

Excerpted from

washingtonpost.com/allmetsports

St. John’s not worried

about tough schedule

After St. John’s opened the season

with a 48-0 win Saturday against

Miami Southridge, Antwain

Littleton paused and pondered a

question about his team’s

schedule.

“A s you can tell, we’re one of the

top teams in the nation, too,” t he

Cadets linebacker said.

St. John’s always plays a

national schedule, but this year’s i s

daunting even by its standards.

Ranked fifth in the MaxPreps

preseason poll, the Cadets will

play four of the top eight teams in

the country and eight of the top

50. And they’re not shy about it.
    “We want all the smoke,”
    Littleton said. “A nybody who
    wants it, they can get it.”
    St. John’s Coach Joe Casamento
    agrees that he has assembled his
    toughest schedule yet. It features
    No. 8 St. Joseph’s Prep (Pa.), No. 7
    Duncanville (Tex.), No. 6 IMG
    Academy (Fla.) and No. 1 Mater
    Dei (Calif.) in consecutive weeks
    starting Sept. 6.
    Asked hypothetically whether
    he would want to schedule the top
    10 teams all in one season,
    Casamento said he wouldn’t give
    up Washington Catholic Athletic
    Conference play. Then he thought
    about it and said he might take on
    the top six teams before WCAC
    play.
    St. John’s played four top-50
    teams in 2017 and five in 2018, and
    it may continue to ramp up the
    difficulty “because life is a
    challenge and I want my kids to be
    challenged every week we go on
    the field,” Casamento said.
    “I believe the greater the
    difficulty, the more it attracts kids
    who crave greatness,” he said.
    “Like, why would you be in the
    Navy when you could be a SEAL?”
    — Jake Lourim

Woodson rebuilding

Last season, W.T. Woodson’s hopes

took a couple of big blows. First,

there was the late, long pass from

Freedom-Woodbridge that

stunned the Cavaliers in the region

final, knocking them out of the

playoffs. Then there was

graduation.

Woodson graduated 31 seniors

from the team that posted the

program’s first playoff win since

2009. Those players thrived on
      creating their own narrative.
      It would be hard to replace last
      year’s group, but Coach Jared Van
      Acker’s first order of business this
      offseason was to try. Woodson had
      a strong JV roster he could pull
      from, but his team also needed
      new bodies. Van Acker said a big
      part of the reloading process was
      adding athletes who had stopped
      playing football earlier in high
      school.
      “We got a lot of kids that had
      been away from the game for a
      couple of years,” Van Acker said.
      “Some of those seniors that haven’t
      played in a while came out this
      year, which is exciting. And we got
      a couple of kids from other sports.”

NOTES

football preview

some believe there will be a gradual shift in

which some offenses flip back to a more

traditional, r un-heavy style.

“The reaction is always going to be: ‘ Let’s g et

more speed on the field,’ ” said Alexander, the

coach and author. “The offense is going to say,

‘How can I get you into a personnel package

where you’ve got light guys and now I’ve got

heavy guys and n ow I’m going to run the ball at

you?’ It’s t hat constant cat and mouse.”

Of course, the way for a defense to have all

the bases covered is to use p layers w ho can do a

bit of everything.

In t he D.C. area, two of the t op players i n the

2020 r ecruiting class are versatile l inebackers:

Woodbridge’s Antoine Sampah, who commit-

ted to LSU, and Mekhail Sherman of St. John’s,

who committed to Georgia. Both have the

ability to drop back in coverage or stay in the

box and defend the run, making them attrac-

tive p rospects.

Sampah, 6-foot-2 and 220 pounds, thrives

in tackling in the open field. The first six plays

of his freshman highlight tape were all jet

sweeps he stopped from his middle linebacker

position. It prompted North Carolina to give

him his first Division I scholarship offer.

As m uch a s Sampah i s a modern-day player,

other recruits are of the same mold.

“The other linebackers that were offered all

together when they went on these college

visits, [they] all looked like Antoine or taller

and leaner,” said Wortham, who noted that

Woodbridge’s defensive philosophy is to use

fast, lean players. “It was incredible.... This is

now becoming the t rend.”

Having to contend with potent passing

attacks, defenses in college are moving toward

base packages that include additional players

in the secondary, a trend that has trickled

down to high s chool.

The Big 12 Conference — with defenses

looking for answers to stop the league’s

prolific offenses — is a laboratory for innova-

tion. Iowa State’s use of three high safeties

and Te xas’s middle safety d efensive look have

made their way into high school playbooks.

Each scheme relies on an extra defensive

back who has more l inebacker-type responsi-

bilities, adding another layer of speed and

agility to the defense.

Coaches such as Dougherty are watching

and thinking of ways to try to make lives

miserable for the quarterbacks on Lake Brad-

dock’s s chedule.

“Totally different sport,” he said, “than I

think it was 25 years a go.”

[email protected]

defenses feel the need for speed

aid Lake Braddock Coach Mike Dougherty,

eaner frames and are quicker to the ball.

PHOTOS BY TONI L. SANDYS/THE WASHINGTON POST

faster on defense. The Bruins are part of a growing trend of high school teams that are fielding defenders who can play sideline to sideline.