Cougars Rack Up 492 Rushing Yards
Unable to challenge a team with many offensive weapons, the Rockbridge County High School football team suffered a 52-14 road loss to Shenandoah District rival Stuarts Draft on Friday night.
The Cougars (4-1 overall, 3-0) dominated the Wildcats (0-5, 0-3) with their running game, racking up 492 rushing yards, while RC rushed for just 42 yards. Leading the charge for Draft were quarterback Derrick Moore and running back Baylor Graber. Moore rushed for 149 yards and two touchdowns on eight carries, while Graber ran for 147 yards and two TDs on seven attempts and also caught a 59-yard TD pass.
Draft, which has won its last four games, wasted no time in its homecoming game, scoring on a 52-yard run by Graber to take a 6-0 lead just 44 seconds into the game. The PAT kick failed. The Wildcats, who didn’t earn a first down until early in the second half, were stopped in their own territory on their initial possession.
“They put together a good offensive drive, a good defensive stand right off the bat,” said RC head coach Zack Rhodenizer of the Cougars.
On a subsequent series, Moore hustled around defenders and ran 55 yards into the end zone. The Wildcats stopped the two-point conversion pass attempt, but they found themselves trailing 12-0 with 3:58 left in the first quarter.
Draft’s defense stopped the Wildcats again, and the Cougars made a series of runs to set up Brandon Pritchett for a 1-yard TD run with 47 seconds left in the first quarter. The Wildcats stopped the two-point conversion attempt again, but Draft carried an 18-0 lead into the second quarter.
The Cougars didn’t slow down in the second period, scoring four TDs to extend their lead to 45-0 by halftime. About three minutes into the quarter, after taking over passing duties for a bit, Wyatt Carter pitched the ball to Graber, who ran away from defenders for a 59-yard TD. RC blocked the extra-point attempt, keeping the score at 24-0.
Draft stayed with its running game and scored again on a 14-yard TD run by James Diggs. An extrapoint kick by Luke Young made it 31-0 with 6:48 left in the first half. On Draft’s next drive, Graber ran for a 28-yard TD, and Young’s PAT extended Draft’s lead to 38-0 with 3:33 to go in the half. The Cougars’ final TD of the half came on a 5-yard run by Moore with 16 seconds left, and Young’s PAT made it 45-0.
Although the Cougars played a lot of their reserves in the second half, the Wildcats picked up their level of play and avoided the shutout, outscoring Draft 14-7.
“I challenged the guys at halftime,” said Rhodenizer. “I said, ‘Look, they’re not giving us anything we didn’t expect. We’ve got to show up; we’ve got to do our job.’ The second half, they did just that … The kids played with great effort.”
Moving the ball with both passing and running, the Wildcats got the ball into Draft territory on their first drive of the half before turning it over on downs. The Cougars then made a series of runs that ended with a 35-yard TD run by Graber, and Young converted the PAT to extend Draft’s lead to 52-0 with 2:42 left in the third quarter.
The Wildcats then got their offense going. After RC made a series of runs, freshman starting quarterback Taylan Tyree, back on the field after missing the previous game with an injury, completed two passes to Aiden Meyers, a 30-yards toss and a 3-yard pass. Andrew Kelly then ran for a 19-yard TD to put the Wildcats on the scoreboard, and Meyers kicked the extra point to cut Draft’s lead to 52-7 with 10:20 left in the game.
The RC defense stepped up on Draft’s next drive, forcing the Cougars to punt, and the Wildcats turned to their passing game again. Tyree completed two passes to Meyers to get the Wildcats into Cougar territory, and Meyers then caught 43-yard TD pass from Tyree for a TD. RC’s final point was a PAT by Meyers with 3:47 left.
Draft milked the clock with its final possession, getting into Wildcat territory before taking a knee to end the game.
The Wildcats’ effort in the second half was similar to that a week before, when RC had come back from a 28-7 halftime deficit to Waynesboro to fall 28-21 at home. “The second half was what we want to see earlier,” said Rhodenizer.
Meyers was a bright spot for the Wildcats, leading all players with 108 receiving yards on six passes. “He does it all, to score a touchdown and then walk up there and kick the extra point,” said Rhodenizer, who was also impressed by how Meyers played as a defensive back, with two pass breakups and two third-down stops.
“He kicks for us on kickoffs, returns on kickoff returns,” added the RC coach. “If we ask him to do it, Aiden Meyers is the man.”
The Wildcats did have more passing yards than Draft, as Tyree completed 8-of-14 passes for 125 yards, while the Cougars passed for 74 yards.
Neither team committed a turnover. In the running game, Kelly led RC with 40 rushing yards on 17 carries, stepping up with running back Marshall Earhart out injured. Also out with an injury was nose guard Bryson Brown, while Grayden Brown, playing linebacker after stepping in at quarterback the previous two weeks, left the game early with a shoulder injury.
The Wildcats will continue district action at home against Buffalo Gap (1-4, 0-3) on Friday at 7 p.m.
Looking ahead to the matchup with the Bison, Rhodenizer said, “They run the ball. They’re in the single wing [offense], which is a challenge to defend just because they give you so many different looks. The coaching staff is working hard. We’ll be in there getting a plan together on Sunday. On Monday, we’ll come out and we’ll practice and try to put our kids in the best place to be successful.”
RC 0 0 0 0 14 SD 18 27 7 0 52 First Quarter SD – Graber 52 run (kick failed) SD – Moore 55 run (pass failed) SD – Pritichett 1 run (pass failed) Second Quarter SD – Graber 59 pass from Carter (kick blocked) SD – Diggs 14 run (Young kick) SD – Graber 28 run (Young kick) SD – Moore 5 run (Young kick) Third Quarter SD – Graber 35 run (Young kick) Fourth Quarte
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RC – Kelly 19 run (Meyers kick) RC – Meyers 43 pass from Tyree (Meyers kick) RC SD
First downs 6 11 Rushes-yards 22-42 35-492 Passing yards 125 74 Comp-Att-Int 8-14-0 2-7-0 Fumbles-lost 1-0 3-0 Penalties-yards 3-25 6-50
INDIVIDUALSTATISTICS RUSHING – RC, Kelly 17-40, Tyree 2-2, Sorrells 2-2, Team 1-(-2). SD, Moore 8-149, Graber 7-147, Pritchett 6-81, Diggs 5-74, Carter 3-31, Morris-Moats 3-18, Bartels 1-3, Team 2-(-11).
PASSING – RC, Tyree 8-14-0 125. SD, Carter 1-2-0 59, Moore 1-5-0 15. RECEIVING – RC, Meyers 6-108, Sorrells 1-12, Kelly 1-5. SD, Graber 2-74.
