Devils hope to catch them a fox

It may not be the proverbial piece of cake, but tonight’s match-up against King George is a welcome and promising challenge to Culpeper’s football team after last week’s stinging, and lopsided, 49-8 loss to James Monroe.

The Blue Devils (1-4, 1-1) make the trek east of Fredericksburg destined for “the Pit,” the name given to King George’s football stadium, and aptly applied given the aesthetics which remind visitors that some things simply do not change with time.

With rain continuing in the forecast the pitted conditions will also be soggy ones.

“It will be hard to handle the ball and hard to throw it,” said Culpeper head Coach Mike Williams. “But King George will have to play in the same conditions.”

The Blue Devils are bolstered by what cross-town rival Eastern View accomplished within those confines a week ago when the Cyclones stormed past the Foxes 41-7.

They did so behind the stellar effort of quarterback Simon Pendleton who accounted for 346 yards of offense including 118 on the ground, much of the latter straight up the middle of the Foxes’ porous defense.

That should bode well for the Blue Devils who like nothing better than to run the ball north and south.

“Up the gut,” said Williams. “That’s what we’ve done all year with straight ahead running.”

Donald Downs, who has split time with Cortez Rollins at quarterback the past couple of games, may play the position exclusively tonight.

“That’s probably true for tonight,” said Williams. “With Downs at quarterback that gives us Rollins and Larry Williams as running backs, a couple of guys who can pound the ball.”

In last week’s loss to James Monroe, Downs found wide receiver John Lezcano for a 17-yard touchdown pass and then converted the two-point try with a quarterback keeper to account for the team’s eight points.

Skill players Duane Wilkins and Robbie Mayes were out of the lineup last week. Wilkins will return for tonight’s game while Mayes is still out.

The return of Wilkins provides the offense with another receiving target, plus he is a threat on special teams with an 84-yard kickoff return for touchdown to his credit in the season opener against Eastern View.

This past week has not been kind in terms of the team’s bill of health. The Blue Devils battled their share of germs and the ranks have been decimated from different strains of influenza and other viruses.

“We’ve had as many as 22 kids out on any given day,” said Williams. “We’re hoping that we have 25 suited up for tonight.”

Members of the thinning ranks will simply have to play both ways.

As for tonight’s opponent, which has lost four in a row, including the last two games in which the Foxes have been outscored 86-7, they pose nowhere near the threat James Monroe presented last week.
“(James Monroe) has some athletes,” said Williams. “They have several players who will be playing on their share of Saturdays,” a reference to future college games. “We had four bad minutes in that game during which we had three turnovers and they scored on each of them, but we also stopped them several times.”

Some of King George’s players lost their cool last week in the loss to Eastern View.

In the waning seconds of the game, one of their defensive linemen was ejected after throwing his helmet on the field.

“They have a few good players,” said Williams. “They can start out well but they can get rattled.”

Tonight Culpeper is in excellent position to rattle the Foxes and add win number two to its season’s list.