Wildcats Finish Strong In Loss

RC Scores Twice In Fourth Against Draft

Putting forth an impressive effort, the Rockbridge County High School football team came up short 35-21 at home against Shenandoah District rival Stuarts Draft on Friday night at Prasnicki-Ross Field at Veterans Stadium in Lexington.

Playing arguably their best game of the season, the Wildcats (0-5 overall, 0-3 district) trailed 35-7 just past the midway point in the fourth quarter, but they kept battling.

RC sophomore quarterback Taylan Tyree made a 39yard touchdown pass to Maliq Corbin with 4:27 left. After the RC defense forced a threeand- out by the Cougars (4-1, 3-0), RC’s Marquise Beverly blocked a Draft punt, and the Wildcats got the ball at the Draft 30-year line. After a series of runs and a pass, the Wildcats scored the final TD of the game on. A 4-yard pass from Tyree to Cole Fine with 16.2 seconds. Trey Rhamey, who converted all three of his extra-point kicks, put his final kick in before the Cougars received the ball and took a knee to let the clock expire.

Pleased with his team’s effort, RC head coach Zack Rhodenizer said, “I told the guys this week, ‘Trust the game plan. Come out and play hard, and line it up and see what happens.”

The Wildcats, who were coming off a 49-13 road loss to previously winless district rival Waynesboro the previous Friday, got a superb performance from Tyree, who completed 17of-28 passes with one interception for 171 yards and led the Wildcats with 51 rushing yards on 14 carries.

“We missed one or two, but I think tonight we did a better job of catching the ones we needed to catch, cutting the ball up when we needed to cut it up,” said Rhodenizer. “That was an improvement over last week.”

Tyree’s most frequent targets were Harvey Presnell and Carson Fridley. Presnell, returning from an injury in the game at Waynesboro, led the Wildcats with seven catches for 62 yards and a touchdown, while Fridley caught six passes for 55 yards and a TD and rushed for 28 yards on four carries.

Proud of his team, Tyree said, “We executed really well. We’ve just been locked in during practice. We knew what we needed to do to even have a chance, and I’m just proud of everybody that showed up and played and went in for other positions that they didn’t play. They all did great.”

On the Cougars’ first drive, Carson Fridley intercepted Draft quarterback Jake Yow, giving the Wildcats the ball at their own 9-yard line. Just two plays later, though, Draft’s Brandon Pritchett intercepted Tyree at the RC 31. After several short runs, Yow passed to Zakarre Hymes-Williams, who ran away from defenders for the first TD of the game. Luke Young converted the PAT to give Draft a 7-0 lead with 5:40 left in the first quarter.

The Wildcats intercepted Yow three times, but he was successful otherwise, completing 16-of-26 passes for 207 yards.

The Wildcats answered back on their next drive, gradually getting the ball down the field and finishing with an 8-yard TD pass from Tyree to Presnell, and Rhamey’s PAT tied the game 7-7 with 9:51 left in the first half.

Draft would score two more TDs in the second quarter, on a 1-yard run by Levi Bartels and a 3-yard run by Nathan Ramsey, to go up 21-7 with 1:46 left in the first half. In the final minutes of the half, Presnell intercepted Yow at the Draft 49, but the half ended with Tyree running out of bounds.

The Cougars extended their lead to 27-7 about two minutes into the third quarter when Hymes-Williams ran for a 1-yard TD. Fridley intercepted Yow for the second time early in the fourth quarter, but Draft forced a turnover on downs and would make it 35-7 with 5:30 left in the game when Yow made a 22-yard pass to Bryce McGuffin.

Among those stepping up on defense for the Wildcats by making tackles were Beverly, Tyree, Shayde Tomlin, Hudson Pugh and Isaiah Ezell, playing his first full game. Rhodenizer also praised Tyler Shafer for stepping in and playing the whole game at quarterback.

Praising his team’s performance, Fridley said, “We wanted it. We executed. We did what we needed to do. We didn’t come out with the win, but we showed great effort tonight, and we did what we came here to do, just had a good game, definitely improved from last year and last week.”

The Wildcats will continue district action when they take on Buffalo Gap (4-1, 3-0) in Swoope on Friday at 7 pm.

The Bison run the single-wing formation, featuring an unbalanced line and a direct snap to a deep back rather than a quarterback under center.

Looking forward to the challenge, Rhodenizer said, “There are no easy games in the Shenandoah … We’ll have to come out and play physical football. You go to work on Monday, you watch the film on the weekend, and have a plan.”

SD 7 14 7 7 35 RC 0 7 0 14 21 First Quarter SD – Hymes-Williams 25 pass from Yow (Young kick) Second Quarter RC – Presnell 8 pass from Tyree (Rhamey kick) SD – Bartels 1 run (Young kick) SD – N. Ramsey 3 run (Young kick) Third Quarter SD – Hymes-Williams 1 run (Young kick) Fourth Quarter SD – McGuffin 22 pass fromYow (Young kick) RC – Corbin 39 pass from Tyree (Rhamey kick) RC – Fine 4 pass from Tyree (Rhamey kick) First downs 15 10 Rushes-yards 30-128 29-91 Passing yards 207 171 Comp-Att-Int 16-26-3 17-28-1 Fumbles-lost 1-0 0-0 Penalties-yards 4-30 4-30 SD RC

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING – SD, Bartels 5-46, Blair 14-39, Pritchett 2-17, Hymes-Williams 3-12, Yow 4-6, Hewitt 1-5, Ramsey 1-3. RC, Tyree 14-51, Fridley 4-28, Clements 6-6, J. Corbin 3-6, Campbell 1-1, Presnell 1-(-1).

PASSING – SD, Yow 16-25-3 207, Hymes-Williams 0-1-0 0. RC, Tyree 17-28-1 171.

RECEIVING – SD, Hymes-Williams 8-105, N. Ramsey 3-40, Mc-Guffin 3-31, Carter 1-30, Pritchett 1-1. RC, Presnell 7-62, Fridley 6-55, Corbin 1-39, Fine 3-15.