If Thomas Jefferson football was a car, it wouldn’t have some of the luxuries.

Imagine having to roll down the windows manually.

Fathom no power steering.

Nope, the CD player doesn’t work either, just the radio.

Vikings coach Claude Hataway gets athletes who have never played organized football before.

Many are seniors by the time they strap on a helmet for the first time.

It makes it difficult to pile up wins like old TJ squads used to.

Henrico blinked and Matoaca led 21-0 with a little less than six minutes remaining in the first quarter, and went on to defeat homestanding Henrico 35-16 last night in the season-opener for both teams.

The Warriors marched 74 yards in eight plays, the last a 17-yard strike to Dorian Jackson from Dustin Clark.

Henrico (0-1) looked to strike back quickly, but quarterback Frazier Fields was picked off by Jackson. Four plays later Jackson was in the end zone again, this time a 28-yard strike from Clark (11 for 16, 230 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT).

Matoaca’s offense was working so well, coach Pat Manuel wanted to try out his special teams.

They were ready, as Warrick Thacker placed a perfect onside kick that Matoaca (1-0) nabbed.

Four plays later, Jamar Parham (25 carries, 152 yards, 2 TDs) found the end zone on a 3-yard gallop to the left pylon. The drive was keyed by Clark’s 32-yard bomb to Lamar Nesmith.

Hermitage’s football team is not an army, navy or air force, but it has a lot of weaponry.

It was on display Wednesday evening as the Panthers dispatched of Brooke Point 34-14 in their final scrimmage before the real action begins for the Colonial District squad Sept. 7 versus Lee-Davis.

The offense looked in midseason form, especially in the second half, led by the unflappable JuJu Clayton.

The senior quarterback looks fantastic and poised.

He threw two touchdowns and scrambled for several first downs, barrelling over BP defenders at times.

“JuJu understands our offense,” Kane said. “He’s making much better decisions this year, although he had a very good year last year. But he’s really stepped up his decision making and checking off plays. I’m very excited about JuJu and his leadership.”

Most adults don’t deal with deaths in the family too well. It takes time.

Even more time needs to be given to Thomas Dale’s football team, full of 16- and 17-year-olds that just lost their captain, their leader and their friend, Malcolm Piggott.

“We’ve already missed a whole week of practice at the beginning of the season because of the death of Malcolm,” Knights coach Vic Williams said. “So we’re struggling a little bit. We’re trying to get our act together.

“This week we’ve had a pretty good week of practice. Our aggressiveness has picked up but it’s still not there.”

No one probably has less practice time than the Knights have had with a game coming up Thursday as TD hosts Manchester.

But quarterback David Williams sees things coming together, slowly but surely.

Coaches live for that point in which they can work with a nucleus of players for two or three years.

Once that young nucleus becomes seniors, you know you’ll have a good squad.

That’s what happened at Clover Hill last season, as the Cavaliers went 9-2 reaching the Central Region, Division 6 playoffs.

That was great for 2006, but not so good for 2007 as 31 seniors departed coach Sean O’Hare‘s team.

Only four players return to the team with varsity playing experience.

“These kids have to prove a lot at this level,” O’Hare said.

From the outside looking in you’d expect CH to reverse 2006’s record. But watching Monday’s practice, it is apparent experience is gone, but talent is still there.

There is so much green at Manchester you would think it was Clover Hill, or money was falling out of the sky.

No one was that lucky at football practice Monday, as Lancers coach Tom Hall is looking to a bunch of first-year starters to make an immediate impact.

“We’re pretty new everywhere,” said Hall, who is getting his team ready for a Thursday tilt against Thomas Dale. “We’re green. We’re very green. We need to stay healthy. We lost our two running backs last year. Of course that opened the door for Leonard.”

Leonard Smith, that is. He earned first-team All-Metro honors at safety, but it didn’t hurt that he stepped in the tailback spot and gained over 1,000 yards for the Lancers.

Smith, a sure-fire Division I prospect, is moving to cornerback this season but will still tote the pigskin on offense.

He’ll just receive the handoffs from a different quarterback than he or Hall expected.

Patrick Henry scrimmaged the region favorite in Highland Springs a couple of days ago.

The Patriots did some good things, and did some bad things as well. The bad is what most concerns longtime coach Ray Long.

“We’ve got a long way to go,” Long said. “Of course it’s the first scrimmage, too. We’ve got to find some down people that will play on our defensive front that are going to occupy people. We’ve got to find four really good down people to play defensively.

“Thursday night was a little disheartening. Some of the kids that were in there weren’t doing the job, and when you are a senior not doing the job, sometimes you lose your job.”

Sounds rather negative, but don’t get coach Long wrong.

Long has been coaching for 35 years and toughness up front is a staple in his program.

Nothing chaps him more than to be whipped at the point of attack.

“We get that defense together, we’ll be a pretty good football team,” Long said. “We’ve got to find some kids that want to get a little nasty in there. Once we do that we’ll be all right.”

The month of September was our second month of preseason and now it is over. The season is here.

We open up in Leverkusen on October 6 at 6 p.m. This last month has been good but very busy. Two practices a day every single day and a lot of player movement.

We shipped players out and brought players in to try and fill some holes that we had. It’s hard to see people get cut from the team after they have been with you for a month or so but is si a business and we all have to realize that.

We have to continue to “dry-run” the offense so that the new guys learn it and even someof the guys who hae been here can learn it better. After a while it just gets really boring.

We had like nine games this month but of course none of them counted because it was preseason. We played a few teams from our league and a few teams from other countires.

We did pretty well because we only lost one game out of the nine. That can be good but it can also be bad.

In some cases when teams win all their preseason games they think they are going to be great, but when the season comes they aren’t.

In other cases winning early like that gives a team confidecen that they can take into the season. I believe it will give us the confidecen that we need to win some games early and get off to a good start.

The team wasn’t really that good but I can say that we did not play that well. we started the game slow and the first half ended with us down by like 8.

Luckily there are two halves to a game. we plaeyd better in the second half and made it a game. We were down by 2 with a little under 20 seconds left and the ball in my hands.

This is my time. I love these moments but I made a crucial decision that possibly affected the outcome.

I keep the ball in my hands for most of the time and call for a pick from our big man. I had already decided that we were going for the win because it was an away game and most of our players were in foul trouble.

The pick and roll comes and I push it aay because I thought too much time was left on the clock. That was the crucial decision that affected the outcome.

I ran the pick and roll with about 4 seconds left and shot the ball with around 2 seconds left. That mistake didn’t allow for our team to try and get a rebound and it was all or nothing with the final shot.

Needless to say, I ended up missing the shot and we lose by 2. I learned a lot by that last play and the entire game. The next time that happens I will attempt to shoot earlier and give my team a chance to rebound.

Call it a cliche. Call it a worn-out saying. Call it what you want.

It’s right.

The team with the fewest turnovers will usually win a football game.

Turnovers: Petersburg 3, Halifax County 2. Score: Halifax County 23, Petersburg 14 on Friday night as the Crimson Wave kicked off the football season in the Central Region.

The Crimson Wave defense dominated the game early, playing most of the first half in Halifax’s territory.

They set up the offense in prime territory twice, but the Petersburg offense went out on downs twice.

So the special teams unit turned it up a notch as standout defensive end Justin Pulley blocked a Justin Bagby punt.

Pulley dropped the carom at the 3-yard line but Petersburg still gained possession. One play later, fullback Joshua Allen banged in for a 6-0 advantage.