Fauquier vs. Sherando

[VerizonSportsFan]

Sherando, Fauquier to battle as playoffs loom

• By BRAD FAUBER For The Winchester Star

STEPHENS CITY — Sherando’s route to a return to the Region 4C playoffs is simple enough. Win their final two games of the regular season, and the Warriors are back in the postseason for the third straight year.

Sherando enters Friday’s home game against Fauquier as one of three teams with 3-2 records in the Class 4 Northwestern District, which, along with the Dulles District, will send its top four teams to the regional playoffs in a few weeks. The Warriors, who own the head-to-head tiebreaker with James Wood, are clinging to that fourth spot in the district with a chance to climb further up the ladder before the regular season ends next week.

It’s a pivotal time for Sherando’s playoff hopes — five teams are jockeying for one of the final three district playoff spots behind unbeaten Liberty — but coach Bill Hall said on Wednesday that conversations with the team about the postseason are nonexistent.

“We don’t even talk about the playoffs. We never talk about it if we’re in first or last,” Hall said. “Because again, the only thing we can control is the way we’re playing. If it isn’t good, we’ve got to fix it, and if it’s good you’ve still got to play well. So I don’t know, I’ve just always focused on the things that we can control. I think our guys, they all know, they look at stuff, so I think they also understand if they don’t win, then that could be the end of it. We’re just focusing on trying to realize our potential right now and Fauquier is our next opponent.”

Since falling to Millbrook, Sherando has gone 3-1, losing only to Liberty (8-0) by a touchdown. The Warriors handed Handley (7-1) its only loss (34-31) in overtime and whipped Culpeper County 52-12 last week.

"Our best football is ahead of us," Hall said. "I like the way we’ve been playing and we’re practicing really well, which that’s the key.”

Sherando has enjoyed recent success against Fauquier, having blasted the Falcons by scores of 49-6 and 49-7 over the past two seasons. Fauquier hasn’t had a winning season since 2012.

The Falcons are 4-4 overall and 2-3 in district, with its district wins coming against Culpeper (1-7, 0-5) and Kettle Run (0-8, 0-5). Fauquier is coming off a 21-18 loss to James Wood last week.

“They have a different demeanor about them this year,” Hall said of the Falcons, who are under first-year coach Karl Buckwalter. “… They look like they believe in what they’re doing. Totally different offense and defense from last year but the people are similar. I think [Buckwalter’s] doing a good job over there. They play hard.”

Hall said Fauquier is more tight end oriented on offense this season, and he called junior quarterback J.T. Diehl a “scrappy, really good football player.” Diehl and wide receiver Evan Jackson connected on touchdown passes of 38 and 30 yards in the fourth quarter last week as the Falcons made a late comeback bid against Wood.

The Falcons could have their hands full with a Warrior defense that forced four turnovers in last week’ and has 21 takeaways and 15 sacks

Sherando, led by linebacker Payne Bauer’s 69 tackles, nine sacks and 34 tackles for loss, is allowing 21 points and 316.4 yards per game this season.

“They’re a run-first, play-action team,” Hall said of Fauquier, “so us having success early to put them in more predictable situations and kind of get them maybe, hopefully, out of their comfort zone a little bit in terms of having to throw the ball more than they want to is important.”

Sherando’s offense is coming off that 52-point performance against Culpeper, during which senior running back Darius Lane rushed for more than 170 yards and five touchdowns. For the season, Lane has rushed for 1,246 yards and 18 touchdowns.

Sophomore quarterback Dylan Rodeffer, who took over for injured starter Chacai Campbell early in the season, has completed 56.2 percent of his passes for 831 yards, seven touchdowns and eight interceptions. Senior Jabril Hayes (43 receptions for 557 yards, eight TDs) is his favorite target.

Hall said Fauquier played more odd-man fronts defensively early in the season but has since switched to more even fronts. The Falcons are allowing 20.6 points per game.

Hall said the key for the Warriors offensively is efficiency and staying ahead of the chains.

“We just want to keep taking steps,” Hall said. “We’re at the end of the season, like we talked about with this team, we’re just in a race with time for this team to realize their potential. Again, time’s ticking, so every practice, every rep, every game is really important for us to be able to peak at the right time."

 

[footballislife23]

Campbell is suited up tonight for the warriors

 

[Shruikan]

Warriors look like a whole different team now that pretty much everyone is healthy.

 

[footballislife23]

14-0 warriors

 

[footballislife23]

27-0 second quarter. Campbell started at QB tonight. It will be interesting to see how this team plays moving forward

 

[BigBWincCity]

Not at the game, but from what it seems with the updates, Sherando’s offense is still lackluster. 20 of the 34 points they’ve scored is off of turnovers.

 

[Shruikan]

Not at the game, but from what it seems with the updates, Sherando’s offense is still lackluster. 20 of the 34 points they’ve scored is off of turnovers.

Offense has looked better than the last several games. I'd say the team tonight would beat Liberty and Millbrook with room to spare, despite the sloppy play. Fauquier only scored on two long passes, both of which were aided by some unnecessary Sherando penalties.

Keli Lawson was great tonight. He's a game changer. Can see why UVA is interested in him.

48-14 final. 48 points is the most Fauquier has given up all season in a single game.

 

[VerizonSportsFan]

Warriors' defense stands tall in win over Fauquier

• By BRAD FAUBER For The Winchester Star
  
• Nov 2, 2019
  

STEPHENS CITY — Sherando junior quarterback Chacai Campbell made his long-awaited return from injury and accounted for 250 yards and two touchdowns, senior tailback Darius Lane scored four times and the offense piled up 48 points.

But it was the Warriors’ defense that shined brightest on Friday night against Fauquier.

Sherando held the visiting Falcons to just 106 yards of offense — including minus-17 yards rushing — forced four first-half turnovers and recorded six sacks in a 48-14 Class 4 Northwestern District win. The victory, which came on senior night, was the third in a row for the Warriors and further solidified their bid for a playoff spot.


“It’s every team’s dream to have a defense like that,” said Warriors junior receiver/linebacker Keli Lawson, who played in just his second game of the season since returning from injury and his first on the defensive side of the ball. “Going into this game, we went in thinking ‘OK, this is potentially our seniors’ last game here on our home field.’ We just wanted to make it special, so we just had that attack mentality from the get-go.”

The Warriors (6-3, 4-2 Class 4 Northwestern) scored their first 20 points of the game off turnovers, the first two takeaways setting up short touchdown drives that started inside Fauquier’s 20.

When Sherando’s game-opening drive stalled and ended on downs at the Falcons’ 22, the Warriors’ defense got the ball right back two plays later when senior linebacker McKinley Dean fell on a fumbled handoff at the 18, setting up Jabril Hayes’ 14-yard touchdown reception on a short two-handed pass from Campbell as Hayes crossed in motion in front of the quarterback.

“To start the game like that and get a big turnover to help our offense, it starts a lot of momentum for our team going forward,” Dean said.

Two plays later, Sherando’s defense again came up big, this time when Lawson, alongside another Warrior defender, put pressure in the face of Fauquier quarterback J.T. Diehl and forced an interception. The 6-foot-5 Lawson deflected the ball as it left Diehl’s hand and made a diving grab in the backfield at the 13.

“It was just a blur,” Lawson said of the play. “I just saw their quarterback reel up for the throw and I had one of two options: go for the hit or go for the block. It was just like my sixth sense to go for the block. When the ball was in the air I lost sight of it, but then whoever was on the ground, I guess it bounced off their helmet and I just had to dive on it.”

Sherando’s offense capitalized again when Campbell found Damien Gustaitis open in the flat for a 13-yard TD pass and a quick 14-0 lead with 7:15 left in the first quarter.

The Warriors failed to turn their third takeaway of the first quarter — an interception by Jordan Polston that halted a Fauquier drive in Sherando territory — into points but took full advantage of the Falcons’ fourth turnover.

Sherando’s defense nearly did all of the heavy lifting itself on that fourth takeaway. Senior linebacker Skyler Taylor-Goode laid a bone-crushing hit on a Fauquier ballcarrier to jar the ball loose and fellow senior Payne Bauer scooped it up at the Falcons’ 20 and was dragged down 2 yards shy of the end zone.

“I just kind of got through the hole easy, just got down on the [ballcarrier]. I got in hunting mode,” said Taylor-Goode, who led the Warriors with nine tackles to go along with a sack and three tackles for loss. “ I saw him in front of me and I said, ‘That’s my ball’ and just committed.”

Lane followed Bauer’s fumble recovery with a 2-yard touchdown run to put Sherando up 20-0 with 9:08 left in the first half. It was the first of four rushing touchdowns for Lane, who ended the night with 135 yards on 17 carries.

Sherando, which scored its final TD of the night on Jay'lin Polston's 30-yard run with 4:56 left, finished with 334 yards rushing and 471 yards of total offense.

Lane, one of 16 seniors recognized before the game, said the Warriors’ hunger on senior night and the fact that Friday night could have been the final home game of the seniors’ careers drove Sherando against the Falcons (4-5, 2-4).


“That was our biggest thing tonight, we were just so self-motivated,” said Lane, who had touchdown runs of 2, 6, 3 and 23 yards in the win. “It was all about Sherando tradition. I think that’s the biggest thing that drove us tonight.”

The return of Campbell, who had missed the previous six games due to injury, also added a little something extra to Sherando’s offense. The junior completed 12 of 18 passes for 137 yards with an interception and rushed 15 times for 113 yards. Six of his completions went to Hayes (46 yards receiving) on what were little more than handoffs.

The first offensive play of the game was a 33-yard Campbell run to the Fauquier 24.

“It got me back going, got me back into the rhythm of things like I used to do, so I felt comfortable,” Campbell said of the run.

Campbell’s interception, which came when Falcons junior Evan Jackson snagged an overthrown ball down the middle of the field deep in Fauquier territory, set up Fauquier’s final touchdown in the third quarter. On the first play following the turnover, Diehl (8-for-20, 114 yards) hit Jackson in stride for a 65-yard touchdown pass that pulled the Falcons within 34-14.

That scoring play accounted for over half of the Falcons’ total offensive yardage against a Sherando defense that coach Bill Hall said played more man coverage in order to put more defenders in the box and dial up the pressure on Diehl.

“Those guys executed,” Hall said of the defense. “I mean it wasn’t perfect on some of our execution in some of the things we were doing but they did a good job being aggressive.”

Sherando will close the regular season next week at Kettle Run (1-8, 1-5).

 

[Rev_Real]

Offense has looked better than the last several games. I'd say the team tonight would beat Liberty and Millbrook with room to spare, despite the sloppy play. Fauquier only scored on two long passes, both of which were aided by some unnecessary Sherando penalties.

Keli Lawson was great tonight. He's a game changer. Can see why UVA is interested in him.

48-14 final. 48 points is the most Fauquier has given up all season in a single game.

I don’t know about beating Millbrook and Liberty after beating up on a sub par Falcon squad, let’s slow that talk down a bit. Yes they will kill Kettle run next week, think they have 1 game this year. Slooowwwww dowwwnnn

Comments Hammy?

 

[Scalvinscaliwag]

Offense has looked better than the last several games. I'd say the team tonight would beat Liberty and Millbrook with room to spare, despite the sloppy play. Fauquier only scored on two long passes, both of which were aided by some unnecessary Sherando penalties.

Keli Lawson was great tonight. He's a game changer. Can see why UVA is interested in him.

48-14 final. 48 points is the most Fauquier has given up all season in a single game.

Sherando defense has improved tremendously throughout the season. In my opinion it’s a little aggressive to say they would beat a team with room to spare. But they are getting better.....Sherando will be a tough out in the first few rounds of the playoffs.