Patriots Return Home with Hopes of Returning to .500

It was a quiet bus ride back from Damascus last Friday night. Heading into last week's game against the Hornets, the Wootton Patriots football team had high expectations as it prepared to take on one of the county's top programs. And with good reason.

Boasting the county's top-rated quarterback in Chris Papadopoulos, Wootton entered the game with confidence, fresh off a 30-14 win over Kennedy the week before. But the Hornets jumped out to an early 21-0 lead and the Patriots were never able to recover, losing 49-12 and falling to 1-2 on the season.

It's a new week though and the Patriots return home for the first time since the season opener, poised to return to .500 as they welcome the 1-2 Richard Montgomery Rockets.

To prepare for the Rockets, Wootton has been working on the fundamentals this week and focusing on "doing the little things right and executing correctly," said second-year coach Eddie Tolliver.

Tolliver cited lack of focus as a big reason for his team's performance last week.

"We lost focus in the first half of the game," Tolliver said. "A couple things didn't go our way and we never got back on track. We just made too many early mistakes and everything just snowballed from there."

Now, the Patriots are excited to be returning to their home field. Tolliver said the team's spirits have been high this week and added that the school has installed a new scoreboard, which has added to the excitement.

Additionally, there is added hype for the players, Tolliver said, because this week's game is the VOLi Sports Game of the Week and will be shown on local TV through Verizon Fios.

"The kids are definitely excited about playing in front of the home crowd with a new scoreboard," Tolliver said. "Plus, with it being the game of the week, it'll be 'lights, camera, action,' so they're definitely looking forward to getting back out there and putting last week behind them."

The Patriots enter with the highest ranked passing game in Montgomery County thanks to Papadopoulos and his 842 yards and seven touchdown passes. Papadopoulos is currently the second-ranked passer in the entire Washington area. His favorite target thus far has been Curt Brooks, who has caught 21 balls for 331 yards and five touchdowns.

Richard Montgomery enters fresh off a 28-6 loss to Clarksburg last week and also enters the game 1-2 on the year, with the Rockets’ lone win coming in the second week of the season over Poolesville. Alfred Beatty leads the team in scoring with two touchdowns, both of which came against Poolesville in week two.