Game Time Blog

Sitting in the office today, looking over some of the stats and standings for the area teams, there were a couple of things that I thought of.

First—and this has nothing to do with stats—is that this is a really dangerous week for Woodbridge. Facing an 0-5 team in Forest Park, it could be really easy for the 4-0 Vikings to over look the Bruins in a Cardinal District contest.

With coach Keith King on administrative leave indefinitely (link), the team will be led by offensive coordinator Kevin Smith and defensive coordinator Jason Ritenour. I’m not saying those two can’t run a team—on the contrary, I think Smith is certainly capable and may have one of his own in the coming years and Ritenour runs the Woodbridge baseball program—but it would be very easy for the Vikings players to be distracted by the confusion and recent news around the team.

If I were one of those players, I’d have been counting this game as a win from the beginning of the season. It’s just not safe to do so, especially given the circumstances of the club now.

Battlefield needs to find more ways to score if they want to move beyond the first game of the Northern Region playoffs this year. The Bobcats (5-0) have scored 94 points so far.

That’s an average of just more than three touchdowns a game. Woodbridge, by contrast, is averaging 41.8 in one fewer game.

In fact, Battlefield has the exact same number of points as Osbourn Park, a team the Bobcats shutout earlier this year. Three teams, including two from the Cedar Run District have scored more points than Battlefield: Woodbridge (167), Osbourn (151) and Loudoun Valley (113). Gar-Field is just 10 points behind Battlefield and the Bobcats held the Indians to six points in their matchup.

The only reason the Bobcats aren’t in more danger is that their defense has been outstanding, allowing just 37 points for the year (7.4 ppg). We’ll have to wait to see if that is the difference for Battlefield this season.

Two familiar names appear at the top of the passing leaders again this year. Woodbridge’s Frank Buckley and Battlefield’s Bo Revell, both seniors, are leading the area with 641 and 602 yards through the air respectively this year.

That’s an average of 160.3 a game for Buckley and 120.4 for Revell. Though Buckely’s accuracy has taken a hit this year—down to 43.7 percent from almost 60 in 2008—much of that can be attributed to drops by young receivers (link). Revell is up to 51.8 percent, exactly in line with his 2008 numbers.

Both are among the best at protecting the ball and leading his team to wins, too. Buckley has thrown nine touchdown passes to just three interceptions and Revell has five scores and just one pick.

Combined they have fewer interceptions than four other area passers in the leaders list. No one on that list has more than four TD’s thrown, either. In fact, nobody is better than 1-to-1 on TD-to-INT ratio other than these two.

Quantico (4-1) needs to get some more love with what they’ve done under first-year head coach John Hubert, a guy who has never even coached football before this year.

Two Warriors are leading the area in rushing. Who’d have thought?

Trey Blackson, who averaged nearly 24 yards a catch last year, has almost 200 yards on the ground more than anyone else in the area. Blackson has 725 rushing yards and eight touchdowns. That’s second only to Osbourn’s Vidal Greene with 12.

The guy behind Blackson on the leaders list is teammate Denzel Brothers with 529 yards and six scores. Blackson and Brothers are second and third respectively in scoring with 58 and 56 points (Greene leads everyone with 72 points).