After graduating three of the most prolific offensive standouts this school has seen in recent history, it was inevitable that the 2002 campaign would include a rocky start for the Colonials.
     Former Colonial quarterback Matt Kynes, now on the practice squad at the University of Florida, has passed his duties to senior Ivan Hall. Hall, who has played primarily wide receiver in his football career, has lined up under center this year per Coach Tim O'Reilly's request.
     "The quarterback position was something that was going to have to be filled when Matt left, and everyone knew that," Hall said. "I played quarterback in youth league football, and a little bit freshmen year. Coach asked me if I wanted to try and do it and I said fine. It's a little bit of pressure; but I can handle it."
     O'Reilly has also been satisfied with the smooth transition. "I think Ivan has done a good job stepping in and running the offense the way we want him to. Matt was an experienced quarterback, so there is a little bit of change there. But as far as being able to do what we want to do on offense consistently, it hasn't really changed a lot."
     Star running back Harry Blodgett also said his goodbyes last year and handed off his duties to senior Patrick Duffy.
     "Losing Harry was big because he gave us a lot of speed in our offensive backfield," O'Reilly said. "The guys we've got now may not be as fast as Harry, but they are more physical."
     Jack-of-all-trades Justin Warren also graduated from the football team with the Class of 2002. Warren, who handled the kicking duties in addition to his duties as a wide receiver and safety last year, has kicked back his responsibilities to his younger brother, sophomore Shane Warren.
     "It's kind of hard to fill his shoes," said Shane. "But I try as hard as I can to do well. I don't really feel pressured; I just do whatever I can."
     "I think Shane will do as well if not better than Justin," O'Reilly said.
     The younger Warren has certainly been living up to his expectations. He leads the team in receiving with 13 receptions for 217 yards and a touchdown, returns punts, and sets the tone on defense with his hard hits while playing cornerback.
     Even though the team has supplied capable skill players for the trio, the team still endured a strenuous start.
     The Colonials dropped the season opener 28-7 to a daunting Woodson squad.
     "Woodson is a good football team," O'Reilly said. "They almost beat Centreville. They would have beaten Lake Braddock, but they threw two interceptions that Lake Braddock returned for touchdowns."
     Hall threw for 161 yards and one touchdown to Warren in the effort, but the Colonials fell short because of a slew of turnovers.
     The team then moved away to Yorktown where they lost in a 27-7 rout. The runway was one way, literally. The Colonials only made two rushing attempts outside of Hall's scrambles.
     "Against Yorktown, we thought we had the opportunity for a big play every down so we kept going for them, but we didn't hit them," O'Reilly said. "Yorktown is a pretty good football team, and we didn't play our best against them."
     The Colonials desperately needed a big play after digging themselves into an early 14-0 hole so they resorted to the passing game and seemingly abandoned the run.
     "When you get down by a lot of points, you've got to make it up quick," Hall said. "We have to pass a lot because we have to get points on the board quickly. We played hard and hit hard, but we didn't execute like we were supposed to. We made a lot of mistakes, a lot of penalties and big plays where we didn't do our assignments. By letting big plays get through, we have to pass a lot."
     The team did pass a lot, as Hall completed 16 passes on 37 attempts, throwing for 176 yards and a touchdown to junior wide receiver Joe Shields.
     "We're going to try and set up the run," Hall said, "but running the ball wastes a lot of time, and when you're down by a lot, you don't always have that choice."
     Not only does running the ball waste the clock, but the energy of the linemen who are forced to play on both sides of the line of scrimmage. Since most of the line graduated last year, the team is left with a dearth of players to protect the quarterback.
     "We'll try to even it up a little more," O'Reilly said, "but we have very few linemen. When you run the ball, you put a lot more pressure on them, and they have to play both ways. Especially against team's that our bigger than us and don't play their teams both ways, that's a big disadvantage. Our kids have worked hard and they understand that's the way it goes. We condition hard and practice hard, so they'll get used to it. It is a factor, and anybody will tell you that, but it's something you have to do. So we just line up and play the best we can."
     "I don't think that we can't run the ball," he said. "We ran a lot the other night against Herndon because they allowed us to. It's just a matter of taking what the give us."
      In the Herndon contest it was penalties, not the offense that plagued the Colonials. The offense was generating plenty of progress, but penalties turned one step forward into two steps back. Hall threw for 150 yards and rushed for 54 in the cause.
     "The offense is still good," O'Reilly assured. "We had penalties on each of our first four drives. We were averaging about five yards a play. But when you start first and fifteen or first and 25, it's hard to get out of that hole."
     "It didn't look like it, but we played a lot better than we did in the previous games," O'Reilly said. "We were much more physical up front. We're playing a little tougher."
     The Colonials came ludicrously close to scoring in the second half after a long reception by Warren put them in the red zone. On the ensuing play, junior running back Dan Stewart ran the ball down to the one yard line setting up first and goal.
     "When we got stopped on the one yard line...that hurt," Warren said. "First we were on the one yard line but then we had a penalty that moved us back five yards. We had a couple of incomplete passes, and then we ran it back to the one yard line again. We called time out and called a shoot pass to Jeremy Root, but they blitzed, so we didn't have time to get the pass off. We were in the game, but it's tough against those big schools."
     Big schools have always been a problem for the Colonials, especially the likes of Centreville, Chantilly, and other Concorde District schools. For years, this school's football team had been the smallest school in the strong Concorde District.
     Last year, the team played as an Independent with a mostly National District schedule. But this year, the team officially moved to the National District after going 4-5 as an independent team last season.
     O'Reilly agrees that it's about time a change was made.
     "I think some people finally stepped up and saw that we were the only team in the whole Northern Region that was completely misaligned in the District rescheduling. We were thrown into a District that we had nothing in common with, not even in size or geographically, which is how the districts were originally formed."
     "I think part of the problem started the last years when Coach Kincaid was here and they had really good teams. They were 6-4 and 7-3, and they were really good but they didn't get into the playoffs for Division 5. They were probably one of the top four teams in Division 5, if not the best. I think they started realizing that all these other schools are getting in the playoffs when they do have a good team, and we're suffering the consequences. I think people finally recognized what's fair is fair," he said.
     Regardless of the district in which they play, the team has remained focused on improving.
     "On offense we have mental mistakes; interceptions, fumbles, penalties," Hall said. "On defense we make mental mistakes or give up big plays. We've been giving up too many big plays. We'll grind it out and stop them, but then give up a big play on third and long. We're hitting pretty hard and we're being a physical team. We have the grunt down, but we don't have the mental part of the game down."
     Third down especially hurt the Colonials against Herndon last week. The line stuffed a run attempt on first down and sacked the quarterback on second down, leaving the Hornets with third and long. But the defense broke down and gave the quarterback too much time in the pocket as he settled and fired a pass downfield for first down.
     "All we're trying to do right now is get better," O'Reilly said. "We're playing a lot of sophomores, juniors, and a sprinkling of seniors, so whatever good we can get out of this year, which will be a lot, we'll be even better next year. We'll get better. We have a lot of new guys on the varsity level, so it's been a transition for a lot of us. We only have four kids back from last year that had any varsity experience. A lot of our guys are new to this. They have to learn to play tough on every down...Every team goes through this in their cycle of rebuilding, putting in things the way you want to do them, and trying to be good every year."
     "We've been improving, but we need to take bigger strides in our improvement each week. We just need to stick together and not get down on ourselves. We need to stop worrying about the losses and keep going," Hall said.
     "Under all the circumstances," O'Reilly said, "we're doing about as good as we can. Our offense is doing pretty well, we just have so many new guys we keep making mistakes. They're effort mistakes like penalties and things like that. We're getting better every game. This isn't a real easy part of our schedule. Yorktown is a pretty good football team. Woodson is obviously a good team, Herndon was good, and Chantilly will be good."
     "It will be tough since Chantilly is such a big school, but hopefully we'll be able to stay in the game," Warren said.
     "They're doing a great job," O'Reilly said. "They're hard working kids and they're doing everything that we ask. We've played three games, and I don't know that our record would have been any different last year in these same three games. It's nothing for us to get discouraged about, we're in the same boat we were in last year. But the good news is that were getting better and learning more about each other and our opponents."