Scare tactics

They were hard to come by Friday night in Sandy Spring, but junior running back Kouadio Adou finds a hole for Springbrook in a 42-13 season-opening loss to Sherwood. Adou rushed 11 times for 34 yards and scored a touchdown.

Football is not making Al Thomas any younger. Last year, in his first season coaching at Sherwood High, Thomas’ Warriors went 7-3 but barely missed the Class 4A West Region playoffs after a handful of frustrating detriments conspired against the Warriors — namely a poor running game, a soft defense and a rash of injuries.

So coming into Friday’s 2005 season opener against visiting Springbrook, the following items might have been on Thomas’ ‘‘What I Would Like Not to Happen” list:

1. My starting tailback to be sidelined.

2. My backup tailback to be carried off the field in the first quarter.

3. My starting linebacker and top fullback to be injured.

4. My starting right tackle to be unavailable.

5. My biggest lineman to re-injure his knee.

6. My star quarterback to have an off-night.

Like a nightmarish Christmas list, all those things came true for the Warriors Friday. Yet, with players on both sides dropping to the ground as if the grass was poisonous, the Warriors managed to rumble past Springbrook, 42-13.

‘‘I’d like to think all our hard work and conditioning paid off,” Thomas said. ‘‘It seemed like they died more than we did.”

Said Springbrook coach Rob Wendel: ‘‘We were depleted with the crampies tonight. I’ve never seen anything like it. I wasn’t ready for that.”

Springbrook (0-1), it appeared, also wasn’t ready for the steady diet of nimble tailbacks that Sherwood (1-0) served up. When all was said and done, the Warriors had tallied 306 total rushing yards by five different running backs. The main dish was junior Andral Joly, a 5-foot-5, 135-pound pest who finished with a game-high 134 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries.

But the Warriors featured three other backs with breakaway speed Friday: senior Damond Merritt (8 carries, 71 yards), junior Jamal-Deen Olatunde (6 for 57) and sophomore Dominique Budd (1 for 35). Last year’s backfield concerns — when the Warriors couldn’t find a suitable replacement for then-junior Brian Gunderman, who broke his foot in week five — appear to be long gone.

There were concerns coming into Friday’s game, though. Gunderman, the returning starter at tailback this year and item No. 1 on the list above, was suspended for one game because of an ‘‘internal team situation,” according to Thomas, and last year’s next-best tailback, Henry Amankwah, transferred to Old Mill in Anne Arundel County. That gave Joly his first start, but he suffered a severe leg cramp late in the first quarter and had to be carried off the field (he returned at the start of the third quarter).

That wasn’t the only thing that made Thomas cringe. Preseason injuries kept fullback⁄linebackers Evan Fatula and Matt Lopsonzski out of the game, and starting tackle Matt Dawson was out, too, having missed two practices with a fever last week. And with 6-foot-8, 310-pound tackle Charlie Byrne leaving the game in the third quarter after tweaking his left knee, the same knee that kept him out of the last five games of 2004, it was enough to send shivers down Thomas’ spine.

Then there was Twyman. The junior quarterback, coming off a 2004 season in which he threw for 2,143 yards and 18 touchdowns, had a rare off-night. He threw as many interceptions as touchdowns (3), fumbled once and only totaled 75 yards on 7-of-13 passing. It was only the second time in his 11-game varsity career that he failed to reach triple digits in passing yardage.

But the Warriors showed a resiliency and composure they lacked last season, and they needed it. Springbrook opened the game with a 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by junior Nick Oates. Sherwood’s offense sputtered most of the first half — Twyman’s 9-yard scoring pass to senior wide receiver Eric Morales in the first quarter notwithstanding — while Springbrook scored again in the second quarter on senior fullback Everett Pumphrey’s 17-yard run for a 13-7 halftime lead.

But Springbrook’s surprise party ended there. Two plays into the second half, Joly struck with a 61-yard touchdown run after nearly being tackled in the backfield to give Sherwood a 14-13 lead. While Springbrook only ventured into Sherwood territory once all half, Sherwood frolicked on Springbrook’s side like it owned the joint, scoring four more times. Joly added another touchdown (11 yards), and Twyman regained some of his touch, hooking up with senior wideout Ben Everett twice in the end zone (11 and 4 yards).

‘‘We came and played a half,” Wendel said. ‘‘I don’t know what else to say. They’re a good football team, but we played a half and that’s not acceptable.”

Sherwood now enters a tough game against Richard Montgomery (1-0) Saturday hoping its injured reserved list shortens, its quarterback sharpens and its running game maintains. Sherwood’s coaches now have the enviable task of figuring out how to insert Gunderman (588 yards, 6 TDs in 4-plus games last year) into a backfield that already looks to be stacked with talent.

‘‘That’s the boss’ decision,” offensive coordinator Terry Changuris said. ‘‘We put our third- and fourth-string tailbacks in there, and they both did well. There are a lot of bullets for us to use. It’s up to us to know how to use them.”

When asked how Gunderman will figure into the mix this weekend, Thomas simply said, ‘‘He competes.”

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