Sherando at Liberty
- Thread starter OCBoy
- Start date
Sherando definitely needs to focus on defense this week but I think they’ll win it this time in Bealeton.
I'm hoping Sherando can get healthy before next weekend. Liberty's line is huge and gave the Warriors fits in the first game, so missing a couple big guys will not help on that front. That said, Dominion had a big line too and I thought they handled it well in comparison to the Liberty game.
@BigBWincCity is correct in saying that they'll need to step it up on defense in one way or another. Even when Isaac Brown wasn't in the game, Millbrook drove down the field twice without much difficulty. I'm not football-savvy enough to know how much impact injuries had on Millbrook's ability to move the ball more effectively than they did in the first game.
@BigBWincCity is correct in saying that they'll need to step it up on defense in one way or another. Even when Isaac Brown wasn't in the game, Millbrook drove down the field twice without much difficulty. I'm not football-savvy enough to know how much impact injuries had on Millbrook's ability to move the ball more effectively than they did in the first game.
Foxsports1550.com will have live coverage of Sherando/Liberty this Friday. Listen on line at foxsports1550.com or on iHeart Radio with the free iHeart Radio app
Turnovers playing a big role in Sherando football team's success
- By ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI THE WINCHESTER STAR | The Winchester Star
Sherando’s Michael Perry grabbed Handley quarterback Malachi Imoh in the end zone to force a fumble that was recovered by teammate Nick Corbit for a touchdown in a 59-14 win at Handley on Oct. 21. Sherando has forced 33 turnovers this year and scored 35 points off turnovers in three critical wins the last three weeks. The Warriors will look for more in Friday’s Region 4C championship game against Liberty in Bealeton.
- Ginger Perry/The Winchester Star
Safety Aaron Banks (right) has one of Sherando’s six defensive touchdowns this year. Pictured here against Millbrook on Nov. 3, Banks had a 55-yard interception return for a touchdown against Loudoun Valley on Sept. 15.
The second-ranked University of Miami football team is getting a lot of attention for its “Turnover Chain” that has helped spark the team to 27 takeaways this year, but the Hurricanes will have to pick up the pace if they want to match the turnover rate of the Sherando football team.
- Scott Mason/The Winchester Star
The Warriors have 33 takeaways — an average of 2.75 per game that’s higher than Miami’s 2.7 — after recording three critical ones in their 35-32 win over Millbrook on Friday night in the Region 4C semifinals.
Sherando (23 takeaways in 10 games last year) converted both of Millbrook’s fumbles into touchdowns on Friday, then sealed the game with an interception in its own end zone with 59 seconds left on the clock.
Fourth-seeded Sherando (10-2) will play at No. 2 Liberty (9-2) in Bealeton in the Region 4C championship at 7 p.m. on Friday night. The Warriors will play in a region final for the first time since they beat Salem 7-0 in 2013 in the 4A North Region title game, and turnovers are just as big a reason as any as to why Sherando has reached this point.
“I think [turnovers] is one of those things you just have to emphasize,” said Sherando coach Bill Hall in a phone interview on Tuesday. “I think that’s the key. We acknowledge it, we talk about it, we praise it.”
Six of those 33 Sherando turnovers have resulted directly in touchdowns through interception returns (four) and fumble recoveries (two).
In its three biggest games of the year — a 35-22 win over Millbrook to end the regular season and playoff victories over Dominion (27-10) and Millbrook — Sherando has scored 35 points off turnovers. The Warriors had two defensive touchdowns against the Pioneers in the regular season game.
Against Dominion, Sherando scored on a 99-yard TD drive after recovering a fumble at the Warrior 1-yard line, late in the first half, which swung the game from a potential 13-10 lead in favor of Sherando to a 20-3 lead in favor of the Warriors.
Sherando talks about making turnovers happen, and works hard at doing so.
One of the things the Warriors do in practice is a turnover circuit.
“They go to three stations, and at each station they’re doing different things,” Hall said. “Sometimes they’re sacking the quarterback and stripping, sometimes they’re taking on blocks, sometimes they’re the second person in on a tackle. We’re just emphasizing different components of how you would take the ball away based on different situations they face in a ballgame.”
Hall said Sherando also does one-on-one competitions every Monday.
“We do it in a confined area, a 10-yard box,” Hall said. “It’s for guys to work on ball security for one component. And our guys focus on not the tackle as much as trying to strip the ball in the one-on-one.”
Of Sherando’s 33 takeaways, 15 are as a result of fumble recoveries. The Warriors have also done a solid job of ball security with 17 giveaways (12 on fumbles).
The two turnovers that Sherando forced in the fourth quarter against Millbrook on Friday were particularly big.
One play after a holding penalty nullified a nine-yard TD run by Savon Smith and pushed the Pioneers back to the 15-yard line, linebacker Payne Bauer was able to force a fumble near the line of scrimmage on a running play to the right to maintain Sherando’s 28-24 lead with 10:48 to go.
It was Bauer’s second forced fumble of the game and fifth of the season, and the Warriors responded with an 85-yard TD drive to take a 35-24 lead.
“He’s a great football player,” said Sherando senior linebacker Joe Kelliher on Friday night of Bauer. “He’s a sophomore and is like 10 years old, but he’s a great football player.
“He stepped up and made a heck of a play, and I was just lucky enough to fall on the ball. Him and the defensive line did a great job up front, and that’s what made it happen.”
Indeed, it definitely takes all 11 players working together for one person to get the glory of the turnover.
T.J. Washington’s interception in the end zone to clinch the game was helped in large part by Sherando senior linebacker Michael Perry. He came off the right side and pressured Gavin Evosirch, a starting running back playing quarterback for the first time all season as a result of an injury to starting quarterback Isaac Brown.
By hitting Evosirch in his lower back, Perry prevented Evosirch from being able to follow through on his pass at the Sherando 26. Evosirch’s throw sailed too far in front of his intended receiver as a result.
“I think that’s been the key for a lot of our interceptions,” Hall said. “When you get pressure, the ball has to come out earlier, and it doesn’t come out accurately.”
It remains to be seen if the Warriors will be at full strength on Friday. Hall does not discuss injuries, so fans will just have to wait until Friday to see if JoJo Doleman — the Class 4 Northwestern District Defensive Player of the Year as a linebacker and a second team all-district running back — and linebacker Kolby Schlag suit up.
But those two fourth-quarter takeaways came without those players in the game. No matter what happens Friday, the Warriors will be ready for the challenge.
“We talk about responding to adversity all the time, and that was another situation where we just responded,” said Kelliher on Friday night when talking about the fumble recovery with 10:48 to go. “We just got after it.”
— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at rniedzwiecki@winchesterstar.com Follow on Twitter @WinStarSports1
Sherando will have a tough time winning Friday night , got a few banged up.
But it’s a good season no matter what happens , about what I expected this year. Good luck warriors!
But it’s a good season no matter what happens , about what I expected this year. Good luck warriors!
They got injured last Friday? Damn I hate that. Hopefully next man up will be suffice
Will the Warriors be without one or more starters vs Liberty? That tough if so. Sorry to hear that.
I caught the 2nd half of the Sherando-Liberty game earlier this year, and what a half it was! I expect another exciting game in Bealeton this week. At full strength, I would give the advantage to Sherando. Even with starters down, the game will be a toss up. The Eagles are very hot and cold whereas Sherando is consistently dangerous especially with all weapons available.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, even Salem fans!
Yes hoping a couple of young bucks step up to plate, Sherando always gets everyone around here’s best game , I am sure Liberty will be inspired no less than what Millbrook was last week.
Running wild: Sherando’s Washington a ‘nightmare’ for opposing defenses
NOV 24, 2017
BRAD FAUBER
bfauber@nvdaily.com
Sherando's T.J. Washington leaves the practice field earlier this week as his team prepares for another playoff game. Rich Cooley/Daily
STEPHENS CITY – Real-life athletes are often compared to their virtual counterparts when they perform a physical feat that mirrors something out of a video game, or when they post remarkable statistical numbers. Sherando High School offensive lineman Isaiah Allen makes that comparison almost daily when watching electrifying junior running back T.J. Washington go to work on the football field.
“It definitely feels like I’m playing Madden,” Allen said on Monday evening, referencing the popular NFL video game. “I feel like I’m just playing with T.J. and I’m just controlling him with the analog sticks. I’ve told him a lot in practice, I’m like, ‘T, I’m gonna hit the button and I need you to do a spin move.’ We joke around about that a lot.”
Washington’s numbers this season are no joke, though the mere mention of them brings a big smile to the face of head coach Bill Hall.
Through Sherando’s 12 games played this fall – which include a pair of Region 4C playoff victories that send the Warriors into tonight’s 7 p.m. matchup at Liberty (Bealeton) in the regional championship on a six-game winning streak – the 5-foot-9, 175-pound junior has rushed 202 times for 1,433 yards and 17 touchdowns. He has 39 receptions for 576 yards and 10 touchdowns, has thrown two TDs and has four total kick/punt return touchdowns.
Washington is averaging 220.8 all-purpose yards per game, and he has accounted for 33 of the Warriors’ 75 total touchdowns and nearly half of the team’s offensive/special teams TDs (47.8 percent) this season. His two passing touchdowns aside, Washington’s average distance per score is 30 yards. Twenty-two of his touchdowns have gone for 10-plus yards, and 15 of them have gone 30 yards or more.
Sherando's T.J. Washington walks off the field during practice earlier this week. Rich Cooley/Daily
“T.J.’s one of the most electrifying football players I’ve ever seen,” Warriors junior quarterback Hunter Entsminger said. “You give him the ball, he’s gonna make a special play. It doesn’t matter if he’s catching it, running, I mean even throwing it, he can do anything he wants. He’s one of the most gifted athletes I’ve seen.
“He can really do it all, so he’s really just a nightmare for defenses.”
The Warriors got their first look at Washington’s big-play ability last season when, as a sophomore, he rushed for 1,243 yards (7.5 yards per carry) and 16 touchdowns in his varsity debut en route to second team All-Conference 21 West honors.
“I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned how to hit the holes right, where the holes will be at, what to cut off of,” said Washington, who was voted a first team All-Northwestern District running back and punt returner earlier this month. “This year I would just say I knew exactly where it was at, where the hitting point was.”
And he’s a year stronger.
Asked where his explosiveness has come from this season, Washington replied, “In there,” and pointed down the hallway outside the locker room to Sherando’s weight room.
Washington didn’t become what Hall refers to as “weight room warrior” until last school year, when the head coach got Washington enrolled in Hall’s strength-training class. Doing so allowed Washington, a three-sport athlete who also competes on Sherando’s boys basketball and track and field teams, access to the weight room during school hours to lessen the burden of his schedule.
“When he looks at a weight, his muscles pop out. He’s naturally gifted genetically like that,” Hall said, adding that Washington’s competitiveness drives him in the weight room as well as on the football field.
“I think he’s kind of embraced it. I think he also sees how it’s paying off for him.”
The video game-like production for Washington on the field this season was instantaneous. In the season opener against James Wood, he erupted for six touchdowns – a 97-yard kickoff return to open the game followed by five rushing scores – in a blowout win. All six of those scores came in the first half.
“I wasn’t looking for that kind of start,” Washington said, “but it happened and I just picked up where it came from.”
Washington has scored at least one touchdown in every game this season and has at least two TDs in each of his last five games. He’s scored seven times in two playoff games.
In a 27-10 Region 4C quarterfinal win over Dominion on Nov. 10, Washington rushed 27 times for 172 yards, caught seven passes for 73 yards and scored three total touchdowns – including a 61-yard scoring run and a 40-yard reception.
Against Millbrook in the regional semifinals last week, Washington carried 18 times for 136 yards and three touchdowns – one a 44-yard scamper – and had six receptions for 72 yards and a 30-yard TD catch in the 35-32 win.
“You can tell, playoff time came and T.J. was just locked in,” Entsminger said. “He wasn’t focused on anything else. It was just, ‘I’m gonna go out there and I’m gonna show out.’ That’s all his mind was.”
Washington and the Warriors get the chance to do it all again on Friday in the regional championship game against Liberty, which beat Sherando 31-28 in Bealeton on Sept. 22. In that regular season meeting Washington was thrust into a role as the Warriors’ Wildcat quarterback after Entsminger went down with an injury in the third quarter. Washington ended the game with four touchdowns – an 11-yard run, a 22-yard reception and TD passes of 30 and 80 yards.
“You want a kid that wants the ball in those types of situations,” Hall said. “When Hunter went out in that game, (Washington) and (fullback Joseph Doleman) were like, ‘All right, here we go,’ and we just started drawing it up. It’s not like he practiced the things that we were doing in that game and the next thing you know they’re ripping off touchdown runs and throws.”
Hall said on Monday that Washington is the type of player who wants the football more as the stakes grow higher. As Sherando pushes deeper into the playoffs, Washington is taking on more and more responsibility.
Washington started at defensive back for the first time this season last week, and he made a game-clinching interception in the end zone with less than a minute to play to preserve Sherando’s win.
Hall said Washington is “probably just as good a (defensive back) prospect”for college as he is an offensive weapon.
“We selfishly hold him off on defense just to keep him fresh enough so he can be dynamic on offense,” Hall said. “As he’s gotten in better shape, and it’s not like he was in bad shape, but just the amount of game action, we’ve been able to get him more reps on defense and now in big games you want your best guys out there. That’s important that he’s out there for us.”
Warriors get a second chance in rematch with Liberty in regional final
NOV 24, 2017
BRAD FAUBER
bfauber@nvdaily.com
Sherando football players drill through practice on Tuesday. Rich Cooley/Daily
STEPHENS CITY – Sherando High School’s football team has looked back on its Sept. 22 loss to Liberty (Bealeton) as the wakeup call that powered the Warriors’ string of success over the second half of the season. Sherando now gets a second chance against the Eagles at 7 p.m. tonight when the Warriors travel to No. 2 Liberty for the Region 4C championship.
After falling to the Eagles (9-2) two months ago, Sherando (10-2) lost a tight contest with West Virginia Class AAA Martinsburg the following week and has since reeled off six straight victories. The Warriors view tonight’s rematch as a chance to prove how much they’ve progressed since September.
Pulling off another win on Friday night would avenge the 31-28 loss to Liberty earlier this season and punch the Warriors’ ticket to the VHSL Class 4 state semifinals for the first time since 2013, when Sherando advanced to the Group 4A state championship game.
“I think this was definitely one of the games we were waiting to come back to,” Warriors junior two-way lineman Isaiah Allen said Monday. “We were kind of hoping to see what teams we would see again in the playoffs and I think this is definitely a team we wanna see again. They came at us the first game and I think we kind of slept on them a little bit, kind of didn’t give them as much credit than they deserved, and so now I think this time we come back and we’re a better and smarter team. Now we really want it, so I think this is definitely the game for us to have right now.”
The regional championship game will mark the second straight week the Warriors will play a fellow Northwestern District opponent. Sherando rallied to beat top-seeded Millbrook, 35-32, in last week’s semifinals, marking the Warriors’ second victory over the Pioneers in three weeks.
Sherando coach Bill Hall drills his players during practice Tuesday. Rich Cooley/Daily
In its September meeting with the Eagles – the first between the two schools since 2014 – Sherando couldn’t hold a 9-0 lead after a wild fourth quarter saw both teams combine for 36 points.
Sherando’s cause wasn’t helped when junior quarterback Hunter Entsminger – the Class 4 Northwestern District Offensive Player of the Year – went down with an injury in the third quarter against the Eagles and forced running back T.J. Washington into a wildcat quarterback role for the remainder of the game.
The Warriors’ offense remained explosive with Entsminger out – they scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter – but Liberty thrived on its own big plays to complete the comeback.
Though Sherando held Liberty to 277 yards of offense, Eagles senior Ja’Von White scored a 25-yard rushing touchdown, a 29-yard receiving TD and returned an Entsminger interception for a score, and fellow senior Markael Gaskins had a 63-yard rushing touchdown to give Liberty the lead for good in the fourth quarter.
Entsminger has completed 70.4 percent of his passes for 2,321 yards, 28 touchdowns and five interceptions.
“Definitely, everyone’s thinking about it,” said Entsminger said of the rematch factor adding to Friday’s regional championship. “They beat us by three points and we slipped up on some things. We all did. Really we’re just going out there and showing what we can do. We’ve gotta play a better game than what we did last time. We know they’re gonna come out and play a strong game. So really just executing on both sides of the ball and I think we should be good.”
Sherando, which has thrived offensively behind a balanced attack (Washington has 1,433 yards rushing), enters the contest averaging 44.1 points and 400.4 yards per game. The Warriors have 87 plays for 20 or more yards this season, an average of more than seven a game.
On defense, an opportunistic Sherando unit has forced 33 turnovers and is limiting opponents to 16.8 points and 238.8 yards per contest.
Liberty, which earned one of two first-round byes in the regional playoffs, is averaging 34.5 points per game while holding opponents to 11.7 points per game. The Eagles have posted four shutouts this season.
Sherando head coach Bill Hall said he doesn’t expect much to change from the Eagles schematically in the rematch, though he added that Liberty junior quarterback Raymond Morton has since returned from a broken collarbone he suffered in the preseason. Fellow junior Jacob Chinault played QB for the Eagles in their first meeting with Sherando.
“There’s always different wrinkles. Anytime you play someone twice, that’s kind of where you’re like, ‘All right, we had success doing this but what’s their answer gonna be? And what’s our answers gonna be?'” Hall said. “So you’re trying to predict for some of those things.”
Friday’s matchup against Liberty will be a familiar one for Hall, whose Sherando program met the Eagles six times from 2012 to 2014, once in the regular season and again in the playoffs.
“We’ve played them since the beginning of time. The fact that we didn’t play them the last couple years was strange,” said Hall, who called Eagles head coach Sean Finnerty a good friend.
“I’ve always enjoyed playing Liberty. I enjoy playing people that really challenge you physically but also schematically and (as a) program. I think they’re a good program,” Hall said. “I like to put our program against other good programs because those are the ones that are tough. It’s gonna be a physical battle, it’s gonna be a schematical battle, it’s gonna be a chess game. But that’s how you really test yourself.”
