■ 13 September 2008 | 1:30 AM
* What in the world happened to Kellam on Friday? The Knights looked like a pretty good football team through three weeks of the season. Then they lose to Cox in a game in which the Falcons never trailed. Wow.
* Maybe I'm not giving Cox enough credit. New Falcons coach Bill Stachelski clearly is doing one heckuva job in year one of the post-Steve Allosso era. Stachelski no doubt would give all the credit to his players. His players, no doubt, are truly appreciative of having an outstanding first-year head coach. The Falcons play Tallwood this coming Friday, so, barring an upset, they should be 4-1 when they meet Green Run on Sept. 26.
* I was at Oscar Smith on Friday, and I don't want to say too much about that game because I'm sure Jami Frankenberry will have lots of great stuff on Larry Rubama's high school football blog, so be sure to check that out. But I do want to offer up a couple of observations.
-- First, Perry Jones probably has established himself as the early front-runner to be the All-Tidewater Player of the Year. Sure, there are lots of early candidates, but if we had to vote right now, Jones just might be the guy. He's simply an incredible football player. Those who compare him to the Indianapolis Colts' Bob Sanders might be right on the money. Oscar Smth lists Jones at 5-9, 190. If he's 5-9, then I'm 6-3, and let me tell you, if I were 6-3, then I might have been playing ACC basketball back in the late '70s. But not too many 5-10 guys make it in the ACC. Enough of that. Bottom line, Jones is one tremendous football player. All he did Friday against Indian River was rush for 228 yards and two touchdowns, catch two passes for 58 yards, and throw a 27-yard TD pass from his tailback position. He also made a mess of tackles, like he always does in every game. My bet: he'll be starting at strong safety at U.Va. by the fall of 2010.
-- Second, Indian River is 1-2, but Indian River has to be the best 1-2 team in the state. The Braves have lost to Lake Taylor and Oscar Smith. Indian River is big and tremendously athletic. The Braves played Oscar Smith extremely tough into the second half, then just ran out of gas. Indian River can't afford to lose but perhaps one more game and still make the playoffs, but assuming the Braves do make the playoffs, watch out. This could be one tough team in the Division 5 playoffs.
* The folks at Lake Taylor probably scoffed if they read what I said about Perry Jones being the early front-runner for All-Tidewater Player of the Year. The Titans' Boogie McCray is another really strong candidate. McCray scored four touchdowns for the second consecutive game in the Titans' dismantling of C.D. Hylton. Just defeating a perennial Northern Virginia power like C.D. Hylton is impressive. But smashing Hylton 48-7 is stunning. Absolutely stunning.
* Oct. 17 could be the big day in the Beach District. The only two undefeated teams left in that 11-school district are Green Run and Ocean Lakes. They play at Ocean Lakes on Oct. 17. Before then, Green Run has Princess Anne, Cox, Bayside and Kempsville. Ocean Lakes has its bye week coming up, then plays Salem, Kellam and Tallwood.
* Death, taxes and Robert Jackson-coached football teams improving every week. You can count on those things. Those of us who saw a very young Salem team play Landstown back on Aug. 22 were cringing. After seeing Jackson's Salem teams roll through the Beach District the past two seasons, that Aug. 22 game was painful to watch. But you knew his young team would get better. You knew he would not accept what he saw that Aug. 22 night at the Sportsplex. So Jackson's team went out and knocked off Bayside on Friday. Bayside, which expected to challenge for the Beach title, has now lost two in a row.
* Trey Bray played like a quarterback in Great Bridge's victory Friday over Granby. Now, those who are familiar with Bray are not surprised by that. It was not so long ago that it looked like Bray would be the Wildcats' quarterback when Casey Turner graduated. But along came a youngster named Brad Hudson, and Great Bridge was able to move Bray around the field. Now Hudson is injured, and the Wildcats have turned to Bray to be the QB. He passed for 244 yards and three touchdowns Friday. Pretty impressive. He also ran for a touchdown.
* Grassfield keeps on rolling. The Grizzlies, in just their second year of existence, are 3-0. They have a winnable game next week -- at Lakeland. But then they play Oscar Smith. Still, if the Grizzlies can go 2-3 in the second half, with victories over Hickory and King's Fork and losses to Great Bridge, Indian River and Western Branch, that could give them an outside shot to make the Division 5 playoffs. That would be quite a feat for a second-year program.
* Well, I guess I better start knocking the dust off some more old stat books. Deep Creek is 0-3 after its loss to Norcom, with Western Branch up next. Tonight, I asked Bill Leffler, who has been covering high school football games in Hampton Roads for about a zillion years, if he had any earthly idea when Deep Creek might have started a season 0-4. He looked at me like I was from Mars. Then he said, without much hesitation, never, no way -- no way has Deep Creek ever been 0-4 before. Bill knows his stuff, but I'm gonna do what I can to try to verify that.
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