Upon Further Review

Don’t care what Southern Valley school you go to or which school’s colors you wear.

When it comes to being a fan of high school football you got to love how Dae’Quan Scott plays the game over at R.E. Lee. Touted as one of the most talented football players to take the gridiron in 2008, Scott did little to dispel that hype in his team’s opener on Friday—scampering his way into the end zone four times against Fort Defiance and keying a 40-18 victory over an overmatched Indians squad that never backed down.

Of course, Scott exploded in the second half, scoring three of those TDs on runs of 37, 11 and 79 yards. All of this led to Scott giving what is a late entry into the understatement of the year contest: “I do what I can.”

R.E. Lee’s Dae’Quan Scott is ready to chuck his team on his back

Yeah, Scott. And what you can do is pretty good stuff.

What you have to like about Scott is, sure he might read all the press clippings and what-nots written about the senior, but everybody knows that Lee is only going to go as far as Scott takes them. Something even coach David Tibbs knows.

What’s great is Scott knows it too. “I think it’s my team and I want them to jump on my back,” he said.

So, the question is, how much can Scott carry and is his table so ready?

And another thing: After beating the Indians 40-18, it would be too easy to overlook the quality play by a Fort Defiance team that hasn’t sniffed more than four wins in a season for quite some time. But Fort played like it had a chance to win the whole game, even if Scott was making sure that wouldn’t happen.

Fort’s Ryan Hutsenpiller scored on a 30-yard run and the Fort defense stymied Scott for most of the first half. In the third quarter the Indians had cut the Lee lead down to 20-12 and looked poise to cut it even further.

And then in comes Scott and a TD run to quiet every thing.

“I was getting upset,” he said. “We were losing ground fast and I told the defense, ‘If you come through I will take care of the rest.’ “

Done and done.

At Stuarts Draft, losing all those seniors could have been devastating. It could have (and probably should have) sunk this team back to the days of sub-.500 seasons and the like. But the Cougars didn’t look like a team that lost all of that in Friday’s 35-28 loss to Broadway. In fact, the Cougars looked more like a team that might have just had a Week One hiccup as new players adjust to new roles.

Case and point? The Gobblers open the game with an 80-yard scoring drive that gobbled up over five minutes off the clock and silenced a pretty pepped-up home crowd. How do the Cougars answer? How about a 60-yard TD drive of their own that featured not a single pass play.

Sure, a lot of that talent off last year’s surprise team is gone. But as every fan out at Draft will tell you (and they told the Daily Pooch Punt Home Office) there’s one reason why this team won’t revert back to those dark days.

“Rod Bowers.”

Sight seen at the Draft-Broadway game: Scouting galore. Spotswood and Wilson Memorial were there checking out the Cougars.

Brown down but is he out? If Waynesboro hopes to turn things around this year (and yes, we’ve all been hearing the Waynesboro-is-up-and-coming song and dance for years now) they’re going to need Steven Brown. That’s why news of his injury in Friday’s game would have cut the heart out of the most pessimistic Little Giant fan.

With speedster Terrell Thompson on the sidelines to start the season, they need Brown in there for the power game. They also need Brown in there when Thompson is back for that one-two punch of finesse and flatten-your-butt in the backfield that works wonders in the high school game.

It’s not all gloom and doom, however.

Did everybody else see the game Clyde Thompson had?

OK, anybody else excited for Buffalo Gap and Riverheads to take the football field?

Anyone? Anyone? Yeah, thought so.

It’s incredible how big of a [feminine-hygiene product] bag you are. You only need to look at your picture to see it. Not to mention the fact that you’ve been a “slack-jawed yokel” reporter in Waynesboro, VA, of all places, for how many years now? You must have the ambition to do big things. Or wait, all the other papers in the U.S. are chock full of losers like you, so you’re out of luck? It must succ-o-so-bad to be irrelevant. From Matt Ball.

Nice e-mail Matt. I like the oh-so original pun on my last name in the last sentence there. Mr. Ball must not know that my last name has been the same for, oh I don’t know, about 33 years now. So I’ve heard them all (especially in high school).

I also like how for being “irrelevant” Mr. Ball takes the time to read and e-mail me. I responded by pointing that out to Mr. Ball. He, of course, e-mailed me back.

So much for being irrelevant. (Oh, and my mommy says I look “very handsome,” in my photo. So there.)