Rockbridge County High School’s new artificial turf field was an impressive sight to behold, and nobody enjoyed it more than the Parry McCluer High School football team, which earned a 36-14 win in the season opener on Friday night at Prasnicki-Ross Field at Veterans Stadium in Lexington.
With the victory in the packed stadium, the Fighting Blues defeated their local rival for the fourth consecutive year.
PM wasted no time at the start of the game, as junior running back Brody Coleman hustled away from defenders for a 42-yard touchdown just 19 seconds into the game, and Thomas Conner made a two-point conversion run to give the Blues an 8-0 lead. Later in the quarter, after PM’s Isaiah Gilbert recovered an RC fumble, Coleman ran for a 4-yard TD to extend the Blues’ lead to 14-0 with 5:21 left in the quarter.
Early in the second quarter, RC’s Bryson Brown recovered a PM fumble, but the Blues got the ball back, and Coleman made a 2-yard TD run to stretch PM’s lead to 20-0 with 5:09 left in the first half.
The Wildcats answered back when Pat Looney scored on the ensuing kickoff return, taking the ball from midfield to the end zone to cut PM’s lead to 20-6 with 4:58 left before halftime.
The third quarter was scoreless until the Blues scored on a TD run with just under two minutes left and then made a two-point conversion run to extend their lead to 28-6. In the fourth quarter, Conner ran for a TD, and the Blues made a two-point conversion run to make it 36-6.
RC scored the final TD of the game when sophomore quarterback Taylan Tyree made a 23-yard pass to Looney, and Tyree then ran for a two-point conversion for the final points of the game.
For the Blues, it was the first start for junior quarterback Quentin Rosser, stepping up after the graduation of all-region quarterback Nathan Glass.
Both RC and PM will hit the road next Friday, with the Wildcats at Turner Ashby (1-0) and the Blues at Page County (0-1). Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. for both games.
For the story, photos, stats and predictions for next week, please see our Sept. 2 newspaper.
