After six weeks of Friday night football in the Concorde District, the playoff race could not be any closer. All Concorde District teams except the Centreville Wildcats have an overall record of three wins and two losses. Centreville has an overall record of three wins and one loss, due to already having two bye weeks as opposed to only one.
But now, scratch all of that. All of the hard work throughout the early season so far becomes effectively gone. In this part of the Virginia High School League, it’s not your overall record all throughout the regular season. It’s your record against district opponents that matters. Sure, the early games can be used for momentum and gaining confidence, but now this is the real deal.
Starting on October 10th, all six Concorde District teams will engage in district play against each other over the next five weeks to determine the seeding for the postseason. Last year’s system only allowed the top three in the Concorde, but now it’s changed. The teams with the four best records against district opponents will advance to regionals in mid-November, to begin the road to James Madison University in the state playoffs. Every game matters, so at least 2 or 3 wins will ensure a spot in the postseason. Although it’s easy to say, it’s definitely not easy to do.
For Centreville, there are lots of questions that still have to be answered. On one side, the Wildcats are the highest-scoring team in the district so far. On the other hand, the Wildcats have conceded the most points so far. And they’ve played one game less than the other five schools.
There’s no question about the Wildcats’ offensive output at least for this season. For the most part, the offense has absolutely delivered. The linemen are always reliable, the rushing talents of RBs Cardin Stover and Amari Barron are easy to see. You can always anticipate QB Will Shields to throw a deep ball to WR Jourdan Simpson and expect a reception nearly every time.
In terms of special teams, Emiliano Lucero is proving to be very consistent as placekicker and punter, getting touchback after touchback and PAT after PAT. Other players on special teams haven’t gotten much major action except in the game against Mount Vernon, in which they made a big-time statement; two blocked PATs and one blocked punt which led to a safety, which effectively gave the Wildcats the win.
In terms of defense, problems from last year still remain. So far in the season, they’ve improved, especially after the reality check they got which came in their Week 1 loss at home to Forest Park. Despite the offense having scored a whopping 47 points, the defense gave up 56 points.
Since then, the defense has stepped up, especially in their Week 3 game against the Yorktown High School Patriots, which boasted quality offensive talent including the likes of Rutgers commit TE Tyler Owens. Defensive players such as Kaden Parker, Eric Brown, Jake Birnbaum, and especially Nick Solomon have all had stellar seasons so far.
But despite their strong performance against Yorktown, the overall defense hasn’t lived up to such consistency in later games. In the Week 4 away game at Mount Vernon, the Wildcats lost a lead in which they held 37 in-game minutes, going up by as much as 11 points. They were only able to steal it back to win in the final minute of regulation. In similar fashion during the homecoming game in Week 5, the Wildcats almost choked a 21-point lead against Washington-Liberty, and just barely survived only due to a 4th down incompletion on the Generals’ last drive of the game.
But the Wildcats have won their last three games, so that’s a start.
Overall, everything in the team seems to have definitely improved to some extent from last year, and the Wildcats appear to look well on their way to having a better record in 2025 than in 2024, when the Wildcats only mustered four wins throughout the entire season.
The race for the playoffs gets more heated as every week passes by, but even though it may seem all even, there are little X factors, both positive and negative, that define just how good these teams are. Here are some thoughts on everyone else in the Concorde.
Team to worry about the most: James Madison (3-2).
Last year’s regional champions are certainly looking forward to the start of district play. The Warhawks have not given MaxPreps a comprehensive amount of individual statistics regarding their football team, which almost adds a bit of mystery regarding how good this team truly is at least for this year, but we do know that they are coming off of a 3 game winning streak, with their last two wins being outright blowouts against Hayfield and George C. Marshall respectively. While they did not score a single point against Stone Bridge in a 7-0 loss in Week 1 and narrowly missed out against Lake Braddock 34-31 in Week 2, they have most certainly bounced back in recent weeks more than any other team in the district, and continue to live off of the hype being touted on them since last season, with MaxPreps and Sports Illustrated naming them the 25th best team in all of Virginia, not just in the VHSL, whilst On3.com names them the 16th best in Virginia, as of October 6th. The Warhawks are running on fumes with two successive blowout victories, and are eager to unleash even more on their district opponents. The Warhawks visit the Wildcats on October 17th.
Team to worry about the least: Chantilly (3-2).
Coming off of a two-game losing streak, Chantilly has the lowest-scoring offense of all teams in the district, and usually have to rely on relatively close games. They have not scored more than 21 points in any game that they have played so far.
Individual statistics don’t really help them either. QB Sahir Mantri has the lowest completion rate of each school’s top quarterbacks in the Concorde District (except James Madison, who doesn’t count because the Warhawks’ stats are barely on MaxPreps anyway). Mantri also has the most interceptions, and has the lowest QB rating of all Concorde starting QBs (except James Madison). Jahrod King has the lowest number of rushing yards of every Concorde school’s top running backs.
Worst of all, no Chargers have cracked into the top ten for rushing yards or touchdowns just within the Concorde District, which is not a good sign when you’re going up against an offense known for their high and quick output.
Luckily for them, junior Jayden Harris is in the top ten in Division 6A for leading the Concorde in interceptions with two, and kicker Ryan MacDonald is perfect in all of his PATs, and those are always genuine factors in the outcome of matches like these. The Chargers host the Wildcats on October 10th.
Game to watch: South Lakes (3-2).
The game against the team to worry about most doesn’t always correlate with the top game to watch, and in this case, for very good reasons.
This game will be an absolute duel of offensive prowess.
The Seahawks have a good amount of prominent leaders in offensive statistics, and definitely not just within the Concorde. QB Christian Wyatt is 12th in the state for passing yards, WR Nick Pickarelli is 12th in the state for receiving yards, and RB Dalton Blakeney is #7 in Division 6A for rushing yards and touchdowns scored.
The fact that their offense is very prominent definitely doesn’t mean that their defense isn’t bad; DB Cameron Soto is among the top 15 in Division 6A for tackles, recording 35. And if anything, don’t leave out the kicking prowess of Nick Bertoni; he’s 2nd in all of Virginia in field goals made, with 5. The Seahawks visit the Wildcats on October 30th.
Regarding Westfield and Oakton:
The takes that were made earlier obviously don’t mean that Westfield and Oakton aren’t games that are worth paying attention to. They absolutely are in their own right.
The Wildcats have had a proper rivalry with Westfield for years, and South Lakes is definitely not mediocre for this season at all. They absolutely have talent of their own; proper talent.
Westfield’s Malachi Lee is among one of the best WR’s in the state, being #19 in all of Virginia for receiving yards. Bulldogs LB Wesley Flamer is amongst the top 20 in all of Virginia in total tackles, registering 52.
Oakton’s Jack Martin is by far one of the best quarterbacks in all of Virginia, placing #5 in passing yards and #7 in total yards, let alone leading the Concorde district in these statistics as well.
Matches against them will absolutely be box office quality.
Here is the Wildcats’ Concorde District Schedule:
10/10 @ Chantilly
10/17 vs. James Madison
10/24 @ Westfield
10/30 vs. South Lakes
11/7 @ Oakton
All games kick off at 7:00pm ET.
The time is now to lock in.
