By Jeremy Stafford — Daily Sports Correspondent

FRONT ROYAL — For a while, the James Wood Colonels seemed as though they might collapse under the weight of their own mistakes.

After the Colonels turned the ball over to the Warren County Wildcats on a fumbled snap in the first quarter, James Wood defensive back Harrison Davis batted a potential touchdown pass from Austin Schwarz out of the air and into the hands of Wildcats wideout Michael Grove, giving Warren County its first score of the night.

And to make matters worse for the Colonels, freshman tailback Gage Steele, who started in place of junior Marty Haley for disciplinary reasons, rushed for 77 yards in the first half and seemed unstoppable.

But the Colonels' own troop of running backs, led by Brandon Shiley and Brock Lockhart, rushed for 342 yards and led the Colonels to a 35-26 victory over the Wildcats.

Although James Wood scored on its first drive, the Colonels began the game in a state of placidity, waiting until late in the second quarter before sustaining a drive of longer than five plays. Lockhart, who rushed for 85 yards on 10 carries and a touchdown, was nothing short of amazed with how well he and the rest of the James Wood tailbacks were able to eventually wear down the Warren County defensive line after such a slow start.

"The offensive line came out hard like they played [two weeks ago] against Millbrook tonight," Lockhart said. "We just ran the ball hard."

Colonels coach Mike Bolin blamed the offensive lull on the fact that, until the end of the first half, he got too far away from the power running game in favor of multiple wide receiver sets designed to exploit the Warren County secondary.

"We went away from what we do there in the second quarter and the end of the first quarter when we went in the spread," Bolin said. "[But] we continued to do what we're good at. We're not a fancy team, we're a grind it out, pound it out team, and that's what we tried to do."

After scoring on their final possession of the first half, the Colonels went into halftime disappointed with their 14-7 lead, but intent on increasing their intensity for the second half.

"We came out [of haltime] fired up because we weren't happy about the score," Lockhart said. "The offensive line came out, fired up, and I happened to run the ball hard."

However, on the opening kickoff, the Colonels again fumbled the football, and the Wildcats subsequently tied the game with a 62-yard scoring drive.

After Shiley left the game with an injury, the Colonels' rushing attack seemed to come alive, as Lockhart shouldered the majority of the carries for James Wood, and Kelsey Shannon put in his own 13 carries for 80 yards and two touchdowns.

By the fourth quarter, James Wood assumed command of the line of scrimmage and moved almost effortlessly down the field, scoring a touchdown on a 13-yard rush by Jordan Dallman and securing the game for the Colonels.

"Our line dedicated themselves this week in practice that they were going to come out and they were going to play extremely hard," Bolin said. "It showed tonight. They sustained blocks, they moved the line of scrimmage and you could tell throughout the entire night that their defensive line was going backwards and ours was going forwards."