They came into the game banged up and winless and searching for a way to jumpstart the season after suffering one of the worst blowouts in program history, a loss so bad that a disc jockey at an area radio station called them out.

That didn't sit well with Fairfax's football team, but by the time the Rebels left their home field on Friday night, last week's 62-6 loss to defending Group AAA state champion Robinson was completely forgotten, a small blip in a 10-game season that suddenly has renewed promise and potential.

From the start, Fairfax was in control of its Liberty District opener against Langley. Running back Owen Schmitt took a screen pass 76 yards for a touchdown on the first play from scrimmage, all the points the offense would need to score, as the defense sacked Langley quarterback Josh Carr seven times in an impressive, 27-0, victory, which the Rebels hope is the start of something big.

``Last week we got hit pretty good by a real good football team and we could have easily folded our tents," said Fairfax head coach Bill Rechin. ``But these kids have a lot of heart and a lot of pride. They do a lot of things right ... I'm just real proud of them."

Fairfax (1-2) was playing without one of its top offensive lineman, tackle Oscar Vega, who was hurt in the Robinson game last week. But 5-foot-10, 200 pound Jeff Miller, usually a running back/linebacker, filled in for Vega on the offensive line and teamed with Chatham Timothy, Milton Schultz, Charlie Ives, John Lumsden and Stuart Turner to control the line of scrimmage and open up holes for the Rebels talented backfield.

Schmitt again led the way with 253 yards total offense, 177 of those on the ground, and two rushing touchdowns to go along with his long touchdown reception. But Landaux Scott and Marlon Wiggenton also took advantage of their blockers, each breaking for long runs. Scott finished with 74 yards and a scored a touchdown in the second quarter and Wiggenton had 55 yards.

``I don't like it when people say, `If you want to stop the Rebels then you stop Owen Schmitt,'" Schmitt said. ``That's not true. It's a team effort, it's all those guys. All those guys contribute to our success and that's why we won."

Langley's pass protection has struggled early in the season, in no small part because of injuries to two starting lineman. Tackle Aaron Charapp tried to play on a gimpy knee, but had to leave the game early in the third quarter.

Fairfax took advantage by blitzing Carr at every opportunity.

``We moved the ball pretty well, but we couldn't stop them and I didn't want to get in a scoring match with them with the way our pass protection is right now," Langley head coach J.J. Hetman said. ``Then we fell behind and had to put it up and let them blitz, which we didn't want to happen." Fairfax defensive linemen A.J. Skolnitsky had five sacks and 10 tackles, two of the sacks coming during a crucial stretch late the first half with the Saxons driving to try and cut into the 20-0 lead.

With Langley facing 2nd-and-3 at the 13 with 30 seconds left in the half, Schmitt and Greg Cavanaugh combined on a sack of Carr. Then Skolnitsky took over with consecutive sacks that pushed the Saxons out of field goal range.

``It was a great job by our defense," said Schmitt, also a linebacker. ``We came up with some big stops right before the half ... A.J. had [five] sacks so he did awesome tonight."

Earlier in the week, the Fairfax players heard that a disk jockey at radio station Hot 99.5 had said he wouldn't want to be a Rebel in wake of the loss to Robinson. After this victory, the players said there's nothing else they'd rather be.

``We're a family, man, and we came back," Skolnitsky said. ``Robinson dealt us a serious loss so we had to come together. We had to have a good week of practice and it had to be intense and it was."

W.T. WOODSON

It's been years since a Division 5 team has knocked off Centreville, but the Cavaliers (1-2) came within a completed two-point conversion attempt of achieving that feat in front of a raucous home crowd on Friday night.

Quarterback Mike Solomon's conversion pass into the end zone was caught, but his receiver was ruled out of bounds by the official and the Wildcats escaped with a 14-13 victory.

Woodson's final drive began at about its own 30, trailing 14-7 with 1 minute, 45 seconds left to play, when Solomon connected with receiver Mike Scott for a 75 yard touchdown pass.

It was impressive recovery for Solomon, who twice had interceptions returned for touchdowns in last week's 31-21 loss to Lake Braddock, another game Woodson felt it should have won.

``Mike played much better this week," Cavaliers head coach Mark Cox said. ``He didn't have any turnovers, he was smart with the ball and threw it away when he had to. He made some big plays for us and that last play was a good decision."

Woodson's defense continues to excel, allowing just one touchdown on a sustained drive against Centreville. The Wildcats' first score came when they recovered a blocked punt at the 8-yard line and it didn't score again until quarterback Dan Mellies hit Dan Bailey with a 45 yard touchdown pass midway through the fourth quarter.

Despite a huge size advantage to Centreville along both the offensive and defensive lines, the Cavaliers almost pulled out the win.

``We're undersized in every game we play," Cox said. ``But that's the first thing I said to the coaches after the game. We did not get outhit. I'm proud of the way our kids took it to them and played them physically."

Next up for the Cavaliers is a key Liberty District game at home against Madison (3-0)

WASHINGTON-LEE

The Generals (1-2) rebounded from a tough loss to Marshall last week with a strong performance at home against Wakefield to earn their first win of the season and go to 1-0 in the National District.

``We made a couple of adjustments defensively and had a great week of practice," said Generals head coach Chad Lewis. ``We don't have any kids who play both ways so we put some pressure on the defense and told them that they owed the offense a better game."

Defensive lineman/linebacker Russell Sutton finished with 10 tackles and linebacker Kjell Cordero had a strong game as well. Defensive back Frank Millien had an interception and returned a punt 70 yards for a touchdown. Millien also had two catches for 40 yards at receiver. Defensive back Jerron Williams had an interception, as well.

Wakefield did a nice job keying on Washington-Lee quarterback Sean Somlar, one of the area's leading rushers. So Somlar spent much of the game pitching out to running back Aldwin Jones, who ended up with 162 yards on the ground. Somlar finished with 113 yards on 16 carries.

``The kids' attitude and their work ethic has just been great," Lewis said. ``I was a little concerned after the loss to Marshall, but last week was our best week of practice. All it takes is that first win for the kids to start believing so hopefully that will continue."

YORKTOWN

If you look at the numbers, you can make the argument the Patriots played pretty well against West Potomac Friday night. Yorktown had nearly 200 yards rushing (181) and 16 first downs, scoring 26 points.

But it's one stat that isn't officially kept - big plays - that caused the Patriots to fall, 46-26, to the Wolverines.

Yorktown allowed West Potomac's Marcus Harrington to run the opening kickoff back 82 yards for a score; conceded a 70-yard touchdown run to Harrington; had a bad snap on a punt that was scooped up by the Wolverines' Diego Moore for a touchdown; gave up a 36-yard pass just before halftime that set up another score and fumbled four times - losing three.

Also, just before Harrington's rushing touchdown in the first quarter that made it 13-7 for West Potomac, an offside call took the Wolverines out of what would have been 3rd-and-8 from their own 25. On 3rd-and-3, West Potomac quarterback Darren Baker ran right and got a bit downfield, before pitching to Harrington, who raced down the sideline for the touchdown.

``I felt like we just gave them three touchdowns. We gave them the opening kickoff, then we fumbled the punt and we misplayed the option," Yorktown head coach Bruce Hanson said. ``We gave them three touchdowns."

The news, however, certainly wasn't all bad for the Patriots in the loss. They responded like few teams could have following Harrington's touchdown on the opening kickoff, though things looked bleak when returner Anthony Ford had to track back to the 1 to field it, then was buried by West Potomac's Tony Portillo at the 2.

On the road, 2 yards from its own end zone and down, 7-0, just 12 seconds into the game, Yorktown fought back and drove all 98 yards on 15 running plays, culminating the 6 minute, 58 second drive when senior Terrence Hordge plowed over from the 1.

Down, 25-14, coming out of halftime, the Patriots did similar damage after a Duane Tigney kickoff return set them up at the West Potomac 49. This time, Yorktown hit paydirt after 11 plays and 6:46, as John Crone caught a pass from quarterback Joe Albrittain on the right side, eluded three tacklers and scored on the 19-yard connection.

The drives were two flashes of brilliance, but the Patriots know they have to cut down their own mistakes to make the strong running game more valuable.

``I thought statistically, we were the better team," Hanson said. ``You can't come up and play a team like this, an experienced program like this, and do the kinds of things we did. We fumbled twice, threw an interception. How many times did they fumble? None.

``We were pleased with a lot of things we did, but you can't beat good football teams doing some of the dumb things we did."

Yorktown hosts Edison next week in a significant National District battle. Edison beat Marshall Friday, 35-0.

EDISON

The Eagles (2-1) appear ready for their early season showdown with Yorktown next week, dominating Marshall, 35-0. Edison running back Mark Beach is off to a great start this year. Against the Statesmen he rushed for 179 yards on just 11 carries and is at 433 yards for the season. The rest of the region may have overlooked Beach, but his teammates and coaches knew what they had.

``We knew he was a good running back, he had over 900 yards last year, so he's a legit running back," said Edison head coach Vaughan Lewis. ``He's strong, but he's not very big. He's probably only 160 pounds."

Lewis said Beach is similar to former All-Journal standout Cedric Bryant, who graduated from Edison two years ago. Like Bryant, Beach has an inate ability to read the holes open to him and the balance and agility to slip through them.

The other positive for the Eagles is the play of the offensive line, which has played well in all three games and allowed Beach, quarterback Marshall Wharam and the team's other backs the space to run.

``I'm proud of how we played," Lewis said. ``We had more than 400 yards of offense and on defense we held their good running back to just 37 yards and he had averaged about 200 a game so we played real well."

FALLS CHURCH

Chantilly's overwhelming depth on both sides of the ball eventually wore down the Jaguars in Friday's 42-7 loss.

``They wore us down because a team like that obviously has a depth advantage over us," said Falls Church head coach Anthony Parker. ``They were sending fresh kids into the game while we had to play our kids both ways."

As Madison did the week before, Chantilly tried to take away Jaguar senior receiver Thomas Fawehinmi, doubling him constantly. But unlike the Madison game, where Fawehinmi felt he dropped several good touchdown opportunities, Falls Church made some adjustments and he caught six passes for 81 yards.

The Jaguars also tried to take advantage by running the ball more. Frank Berchie rushed for 139 yards on 15 carries.

``When teams do that it allows us to run the ball more effectively with so many men out of the box," Parker said.

The Jaguars begin National District play this week against Washington-Lee.