Westfield (VA) 28, Chantilly (VA) 16

FormerWildcat

FormerWildcat

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I'm not sure how many of the DC area guys make it over to the National Board, since many of them are from Ohio originally & mostly post on the Ohio board. Anyway, since this wasn't an Ohio game, it makes more sense to put it over here.

Last night, I was finally able to see a big regular season game in Virginia for the first time in my two years of living around here. Chantilly was last year's big school state runner up, and Westfield has been projected by some to be this year's big school state champ favorite.

Both teams came into this game 3-0, and there was a nice crowd of 7,500 on hand at Westfield. The schools are four miles from each other in the western suburbs of DC.

For the most part, I was impressed with the quality of play. There were a lot of what I would call "aggression penalties," like late hits as the pile was going out of bounds and a crucial roughing the passer penalty.

It was a big game, and the kids sometimes lose their heads in that environment. They need to learn that it's about controlled aggression, not unbridled aggression. LOL!

There was only one turnover in the game, and good fundamental blocking & tackling. I rarely saw any "shirt pull" tackles, which just make me wince.

I was very impressed with both teams' ability to utilize balanced offenses, although Westfield's was clearly two scores better. So, I think the final score was reflective of the two teams' ability.

All in all, they were two very well-coached squads. I'd love to see either one play in a real, live game against DeMatha or Good Counsel. I could see them playing one of the "middle games" in the Herbie as well. You could match them up with someone like LaSalle, Huber Heights Wayne, or Centerville.

Here's the Washington Post article on the game: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/20/AR2007092002854.html
 
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I might catch Westfield at Robinson this Friday...should be a good game as Robinson's defense is always tough to crack. How did Glennon look for Westfield? Also DeMatha at St. John's on Saturday.

It would indeed be nice to see the Fairfax County teams play more games against teams from elsewhere, even teams from Prince William County. Robinson split a pair of games with Good Counsel the last two years, but replaced them with Anacostia.
 
I'm thinking about the Westfield/Robinson game as well, but I might sneak out of work early to catch Watterson play Steubenville back in Ohio instead.

I saw Robinson play Good Counsel last year, and I wasn't terribly impressed with either team. I hadn't yet learned that Good Counsel is generally considered the second best team in the WCAC.

The level of play I saw was not very good in that Robinson/Good Counsel game last year. I was much more impressed with the Westfield/Chantilly game I saw last week.

I like the natural ability of the younger Glennon, but he didn't really show a lot in terms of throwing the ball downfield against Chantilly. He was deadly on the 8-10 yard out routes, and Chantilly couldn't stop it.

However, Westfield didn't go vertical very often, and I started to wonder if he'd be able to do it when expected at NC State. I didn't see the older Glennon play at Westfield, so I wondered if he had the same issues transitioning to college ball that I forsee for the younger Glennon.

College DBs are going to eat up the younger Glennon on that 8-10 yard out that he likes to throw, if he relies on it too often. I guess that's offset by the fact that his receivers will obviously be better at NC State, but I don't think Glennon is learning everything he could, because all of his receivers at Westfield are possession receivers. He doesn't really have any speed burners to throw to downfield at Westfield.

One of the things that impressed me about the younger Glennon was his running ability. He's actually a decent scrambler, although he looks lanky doing it. He has a huge stride, but he ran well laterally against Chantilly. That seems to be one thing his older brother lacks at VaTech.

Unless Robinson has somehow gotten a lot better than last year, I don't see how they come within 3 TDs of Westfield.
 
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Well, Westfield hammered Robinson 38-7...they were clearly a class above the Rams but Robinson helped them out with a bunch of turnovers, only one Westfield scoring drive started on their half of the field.

I thought Glennon looked very good, only one or two bad throws, threw a couple touchdown passes and had a few more called back and dropped. They do a nice job protecting him too. It's hard to see anyone in the region beating them, but that's how it looked last year too...
 
I'm going to try to go see Courtland (in Spotsylvania) when I get back home from Guam in a couple of weeks. I hear they are pretty good.
 
FormerWildcat said:
I've never heard of them, although I don't know much about football in Virginia outside of Northern Virginia and the Hampton Roads area. However, it looks like Courtland is 2-2 on the year.

http://www.maxpreps.com/FanPages/Te...a/AreaID-13622870-c7ab-41d4-95ac-320f9e676212
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Thanks for the info. The recommendation I got was from the start of the football season. However, in the last five weeks I have been in Honolulu for a little over a week, San Diego for a week, Crete for a little over a week, and now I find myself in Guam. Its hard to keep up. I find myself having to call my brother just to see how Moe did and my parents to see how Steubenville did. :eek:
 
Big game this week is West Springfield at West Potomac...could be a lot of points in this one, but I doubt they'll approach last year's 81-74, 5 overtime battle.
 
MA Fan said:
Big game this week is West Springfield at West Potomac...could be a lot of points in this one, but I doubt they'll approach last year's 81-74, 5 overtime battle.
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Hmmm. Seeing that I live close to South County, that obviously (for those who don't live in VA) also means that I live close to West Springfield as well. In fact, I live in between the two schools.

West Springfield has a nice FieldTurf stadium, although their recent claim to fame is producing QBs that throw for a ridiculous amount of yardage. Unfortunately, the Spartans' defense has been historically lackluster, to say the least.

Here's their preview article from before the season started: Pigskin Preview 2007: West Springfield Spartans: West Springfield looking for defensive support this season

Apparently, their defense has improved this year, though.

Spartans Defense Not Blinking: West Springfield’s defense is winning games

I really doubt either could do much against Westfield. Westfield put it to Robinson 38-7, from what I heard.

This site has a lot of good game highlight videos: http://www.localreplay.com/videos/default.php
 
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FormerWildcat said:
This site has a lot of good game highlight videos: http://www.localreplay.com/videos/default.php
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Nice link...the other place for highlights of Northern Virginia games is the Northern Region recap on Digital Sports:

http://va.digitalsports.com/conferences/6

West Springfield's defense has been up and down this year--they did a good job against Edison and Robinson, but gave up 56 to Stone Bridge and 41 to an Annandale team that hadn't scored a touchdown in their previous couple games.

West Potomac was a similar team last year, great offense and terrible defense, their defense is looking somewhat better this year but they haven't really been tested yet. QB has thrown for 17 touchdowns in 5 games.

I doubt either team has the defense to challenge Westfield, but the winner of this game should go on to win the district.
 
MA Fan,

What's your opinion on the Post rankings? They seem consistently slanted towards the Maryland schools and the WCAC.

I think it's silly that DeMatha is ranked ahead of Westfield. I still don't see how St. John's could still be ranked #13 with two losses either.
 
Hey FormerWildcat,

What is your take on the best teams around the Spotsylvania area. I moved there in April and would like to check up on some high school football. Any recommendations?
 
FormerWildcat said:
MA Fan,

What's your opinion on the Post rankings? They seem consistently slanted towards the Maryland schools and the WCAC.

I think it's silly that DeMatha is ranked ahead of Westfield. I still don't see how St. John's could still be ranked #13 with two losses either.
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I think the WCAC is terribly overrated in the Post rankings--I've seen St. John's twice, including last week against DeMatha, and they are nowhere near a top 20 team IMO. I suspect the league's basketball reputation leaks over into the football rankings.

The rankings do seem a little slanted towards the Maryland teams, especially in their willingness to rank teams from the lower divisions. OTOH there are more Maryland schools in their coverage area than Virginia schools. I never see any of the Maryland public schools so I really don't know how they compare.

They also overrate DCIAA teams, at least early in the season before they've been proven to be poor. Dunbar was the preseason #5!

With so many different jursidictions in the area, it's largely guesswork, not much more reliable than the national polls. Probably not worth worrying about too much.
 
MA Fan said:
The best class AAA team in the area this year looks like Massaponax
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That's the team I've heard about as well. Living up in Fairfax County doesn't afford many opportunities to go down and see a game myself.

However, I've stopped in Spotsylvania County on my way to Charlottesville (going through Fredericksburg), and that's the team you see in their local paper. They even have a website at http://massaponaxfootball.com/
 
I'll have to check them out then. Thanks.

I noticed that area is rapidly expanding. Its just east of where I live on the south side of Fredericksburg.
 
None of the northern region games this week really jump out as attractive, but there should be a good game in Prince William County as Woodbridge plays at Potomac.
 
Westfield at Centreville on Saturday night to close the season--Centreville just upset Chantilly last night, maybe they can give Westfield a game.
 
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