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Friday, Sept. 8 – Continuing to struggle offensively and defensively, the Rockbridge County High School football team suffered a 55-8 home loss to Alleghany to fall to 0=3 on Friday night at Prasnicki-Ross Field at Veterans Stadium in Lexington.
The game, which had a 35-minute lightning delay just past the midway point of the second quarter, was called due to lightning with 1:02 left in the third quarter.
In the nondistrict matchup, Alleghany (3-0), which merged with Covington High School entering this school year and picked up some Covington players, raced to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter and extended its advantage to 41-0 before the lightning delay. After the Cougars went up 48-0 in the third quarter, the Wildcats scored their only touchdown of the night when Elijah Fox made a 10-yard run to the end zone with 3:23 left in the third quarter. A two-point conversion pass from quarterback Jayden Layman to JP Welsh cut Alleghany’s lead to 48-8.
Alleghany scored its final TD of the game on a 50-yard run by Hunter DePriest with 2:37 left in the game.
Early in the game, the Cougars built up their early lead with strong passing and running. Just 2:14 into the showdown, Alleghany quarterback Des Jordan made a 14-yard TD pass to Purcel Tuner, and Mason Hale’s extra-point kick gave the visitors a 7-0 lead.
The home crowd got fired up when RC’s Aiden Meyers intercepted Jordan at the RC 15-yard line later in the first quarter, but the Alleghany defense held the Wildcats in their own territory. The Cougars took a 14-0 lead after Hunter Knighton made an 18-yard TD run with 1:08 left in the period.
On the Wildcats’ next drive, Alleghany’s Hayden Knighton intercepted Layman and ran the ball back 55 yards for a TD, and a PAT extended the Cougars’ lead to 21-0 with 35.3 seconds left in the first quarter.
Early in the second quarter, the Wildcats turned the ball over on downs when they fumbled a snap to the punter. Alleghany started the ball at the RC 10-yard line, and Neeko Jeter ran for a 10-yard TD. A PAT gave the Cougars a 28-0 lead with 9:49 left in the first half.
Alleghany scored two more TDs before the lightning delay, on a 19-yard pass from Jordan to Hayden Knighton with 7:01 left in the first half, and on a 23-yard run by Jordan with 5:11 left.
After a three-minute halftime to compensate for the long delay, Hunter Knighton ran for a 38-yard TD just over a minute into the second half, and a PAT made it 48-0.
On RC’s next drive, Fox, Layman, Gabriel Wade and Josiah Saunders ran the ball well to set up Fox for his TD.
Before they begin Valley District action in two weeks, the Wildcats will make their first trip outside of the county this season when they play at Blacksburg (1-2) 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 Sept. 13 newspaper.
