West Potomac Holds Off Woodson 45-26

By Robert LaGow

On a blustery Thursday night, a night that was supposed to be Friday night, the West Potomac Wolverines spoiled the homecoming festivities for the W.T. Woodson Cavaliers, 45-26.

With weather looming from a Nor’easter and Hurricane Joaquin, Fairfax County Public Schools quickly rearranged the football schedules, turning normal pre-game walk-through day into game day.

The Wolverines seemed to take it all in stride. Following the first of what would be two interceptions by DB Okrah Opoku, QB Mark Ellis settled into a groove, leading the Wolverines down field with RB Justine Annan chewing up the final 8 yards for the first score of the night. Eric Waters’ extra point gave the Wolverines a 7-0 lead.

Ellis finished the night with 379 yards on 14 of 23 passes and 3 touchdowns. His favorite targets were C.J. Burch (4 catches, 152 yds., 1 TD) and Khalil Williams Diggins (4 catches, 145 yds., 2 TDs). Rushing leaders for West Potomac were Daiimon Cleveland (15 carries, 46 yds.) and Annan (12 carries, 44 yds.)

Following one of several turnovers-on-downs by the West Potomac defense, Ellis went to work again, this time hitting Burch for a 79 yard catch and run to make it 13-0.

Ten plays later, Woodson got on the board with a 16 yard pass from QB Jojo Heisley to WR Jack Caldwell.

Woodson took advantage of a short field following a shanked West Potomac punt and took what would be their only lead of the night – albeit a brief one – when RB Chris Gardner rumbled in from 13 yards out.

Down 14-13, Ellis engineered a 67 yard drive, capped by a 14 yard TD by RB Daiimon Cleveland to give West Potomac a 19-14 lead that they would not relinquish.

Annan finished out the first half scoring with a 13 yard score and the Wolverines headed into the half up 25-14.

Another scoring strike from Ellis to Williams, this one for 61 yards, made it 32-14 going into th efourht quarter.

And that’s when things got interesting.

The Wolverines tacked on a pair of scores – a 58-yard pass to Williams and a 5 yard Cleveland run – to believe things were comfortably in hand with 6:35 left in the game and a 45-14 lead.

Heisley moved the Cavaliers 48 yards on a pair of passes to Caldwell, including a 10-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 45-20 with 4:16 remaining.

The subsequent onside kick bounced off of four different players, Woodson came up with it to set up shop at their own 44. A 22-yard pass from Heisley to Peyton Dudley set up a 25 yard TD pass to Phillip Kang in a crowd to make it 45-26 with 3:45 left and setting up another onside kick attempt by Woodson.

This time, DB Patrick Aitken game up big with a leaping catch to give the Wolverines a chance to grind out the clock from their own 47. But a 4 and out gave Woodson another last gasp with 2:26 remaining. That’s when Opoku stepped up big and notched his second interception of the night, sealing the win.

Coming up big in the fourth quarter is becoming old hat for Opoku. Two weeks prior, he blocked a last-second field goal try to seal the 29-27 win at Briar Woods.

For the season, Ellis is among the leaders in the Northern Region with 1383 yds. on 74 of 130 attempts, 14 TDs, and just 2 interceptions. Burch has drawn attention with a 21.7 yd. per catch average and 651 yds.

With the win, West Potomac moves to 4-1 on the season and 1-1 in Conference 7 play. Woodson falls to 1-4 on the year and 0-2 in the conference.

Next week, West Potomac hosts West Springfield, Oct. 9, at 7 p.m. Woodson will travel to South County that night to take on the Stallions.

Robert LaGow is a freshmen football coach and stadium announcer at West Potomac.