Cardinal District foes Hylton and Woodbridge take on new roles

By Joe Conroy

Published: November 13, 2008

When Hylton heads to Woodbridge tonight for the first round of the Group AAA Division 6 Northwest Region playoffs, there won’t be much unexpected for either the Bulldogs or the Vikings.
Woodbridge held Hylton to just one score in the Vikings’ 35-6 win earlier this year and scouting has also made the two coaching staffs familiar with the tendencies of each team.
“I think for both Lou (Sorrentino)’s team and ours, we’ve seen one another a lot,” Woodbridge coach Keith King said. “We play in the same district so you get tape on one another a lot. We’re not going to surprise with anything.”
That is particularly true for what Hylton expects from Woodbridge on offense. The Vikings (10-0) have the top player in the area in running back De’Antwan Williams and King is not shy in handing the ball to the senior (Williams has 1,756 rushing yards this season and is closing in on the state career record of 7,156, needing 442 to tie the four-year-old mark).
The difference this year as opposed to the previous four is that the Vikings have a balanced attack with junior Frank Buckley working at quarterback.
“Everyone is going to try to take away De’Antwan,” King said. “But we do have the ability to throw the ball and we have (three) receivers with more than 200 yards receiving each. It makes it tough to shut down the run now that we can go downfield.”
Buckley has thrown for 1,230 yards and 13 touchdowns and is completing nearly 60 percent of his passes, the best in the area. Although 311 of those yards have gone to Kyle Cody, Buckley has spread it around enough to Kelvin Lewis (269) and Cochise Jones (208) to keep defenses guessing each game.
“They’re very balanced across their team,” Sorrentino said. “They’re a team with no glaring weakness.”
As the No. 3 seed, Sorrentino’s Bulldogs (7-3) are in a different position than they’ve been used to. Though it’s a change, it’s not a bad thing the coach said.
“We’re the underdogs,” said Sorrentino, who has led Hylton to the playoffs five times since 2002. “It feels pretty good. We felt more pressure when we were the favorite especially if we’d beaten the other team already. We can throw caution to the wind in this game, be a little more experimental. We have to pull out all stops. It’s kind of nice and refreshing.”
Hylton’s offense is almost as unpredictable as Woodbridge’s with Bill Nyantakyi (781 rushing yards, nine touchdowns) in the backfield and Joel Himan (1,002 passing yards, 12 touchdowns) under center.
“Their quarterback throws the ball really well and they’ve got good receivers in (Kevin) Wheeler and (Dayne) Mullins,” King said. “On the touchdown (to Wheeler), we defended it perfectly, it couldn’t have been covered better. We just have to take care of what we can take care of and if they make perfect plays then it might be a long night for us.”
King has preached to his team that, despite a goal of returning to the state final game, Woodbridge can not afford to overlook Hylton.
“I told (our players) if you look at Hylton, they’ve lost three games,” King said of Bulldog losses to Battlefield, Lake Taylor and Woodbridge. “Those teams haven’t lost a game this year and they’ve beaten everyone else they’re supposed to beat.”
Even against the Bobcats, the No. 1 seed in the region, Hylton pushed Battlefield in a 27-21 loss that came down to the final series.
“Our kids understand the magnitude of this game,” King said. “Hylton is a traditional power and those kids expect to win over there.
“We told the kids, ‘We have a four-game season now,’” King added. “‘If we lose, you don’t have another. You have to know your assignments and be prepared.’”