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Friday, Sept. 1 – The Rockbridge County High School football team suffered a 42-0 loss to Staunton in its home opener on Friday night at Prasnicki-Ross Field at Veterans Stadium in Lexington.
The Wildcats (0-2), coming off a 56-14 loss in the season opener a week earlier at Parry McCluer, again struggled to take care of the ball in the nondistrict contest, committing four turnovers, two fumbles and two interceptions.
Staunton (1-1), coming off a 15-14 loss in its season opener a week earlier at Madison County, recovered one of those fumbles on the Wildcats’ first drive, at the RC 33-yard line, and scored a touchdown just 1:22 into the game when quarterback Maliq McCauley made a 16-yard pass to Marc Geffrard for his first of three TDs. Brycen Fields, who made all six of his extra-point kicks, put the Storm up 7-0.
On its next drive, Staunton fumbled the ball, and RC’s Caleb Robinson recovered it at the Wildcats’ 46-yard line. Two plays later, however, RC quarterback Jayden Layman was intercepted by Staunton’s Jamil Ford. The Storm made a series of runs to set up McCauley for a 15-yard TD pass to Kealo Smith, extending Staunton’s lead to 14-0 with 6:14 left in the first quarter.
Layman was intercepted again on RC’s next drive, with Smith picking him off at the RC 35-yard line. On the next play, Geffrard made a 35-yard run for a TD to stretch the Storm’s lead to 21-0 with 4:35 left in the first quarter.
A series of runs by RC running back Ryan Maxwell got the Wildcats into the red one, but the Wildcats turned the ball over on downs on the Staunton 16-yard line. Staunton extended its lead to 28-0 when McCauley made a 31-yard toss to Geffrard with 8:18 left in the first half. Staunton scored again with 4:25 left in the first half when Braylen Fields made a 21-yard run to the end zone to extend the Storm’s lead to 35-0.
The teams played the entire second half with a running clock because the lead was 35 points or more, but the Wildcats did play better defensively, holding the Storm to one TD in the half. The score came on a 30-yard run by Braylen Fields with 8:08 left in the third quarter.
Maxwell made impressive runs in the third quarter to get the Wildcats all the way to the Staunton 16-yard line, but RC turned the ball over on downs. In the fourth quarter, with a lot of Staunton’s starters resting, Maxwell and running back Daniel Grimm did a good job running the ball for the Wildcats, but Staunton’s defense prevented the Wildcats from scoring.
The Wildcats will continue nondistrict action with a home game against Alleghany (2-0) next Friday at 7 p.m.
For the full story, photos and stats from Friday’s game, with a prediction for next week, please see our Aug. 30 newspaper.
