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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, 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 twopoint 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.
The Wildcats had lost each of their first two games by 42 points. Against Alleghany, RC head coach Martin Cox said the Wildcats were looking like they might not have such a lopsided defeat, but lapses on defense allowed the Cougars to extend their advantage.
“We started out like we wanted to make a little change, but then, you know, a little more of the same,” said Cox. “We keep facing people that kind of want it a little bit more than we do. You can’t win football games if you keep making mistakes and you don’t tackle people. Plain and simple, we’ve got to make tackles. That’s our biggest problem.”
Cox said the Wildcats make tackles every day in practice, but when they get on the field for a game, “It doesn’t seem to work out. If you don’t tackle people, you can’t keep the scoreboard from getting lit up.”
For the game, Alleghany racked up 215 rushing yards, making long runs on just nine carries, while holding the Wildcats to 102 yards on the ground. In the air, the Cougars had 122 passing yards while holding the Wildcats to just one completion in 15 tries for 25 yards. The completion was from Layman to Fox in the first quarter.
The Wildcats committed three turnovers in the game, two on fumbles and one on an interception. Alleghany committed two turnovers, with one fumble and one interception.
Early in the game, the Cougars built up a lead with strong passing and running. Just 2:14 into the showdown, Alleghany quarterback Des Jordan completed a 14-yard TD pass to Purcel Turner, and Mason Hale’s extra-point kick gave the visitors a 7-0 lead. Jordan completed 5-of-9 passes for 105 yards and two TDs, with one interception.
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. Knighton led the Cougars with 56 rushing yards on two carries.
On the Wildcats’ next possession, Alleghany’s Hayden Knighton intercepted Layman and ran the ball back 55 yards for a TD. A PAT extended the Cougars’ lead to 21-0 with 35.3 seconds left in the first quarter.
Early in the second quarter, Alleghany got the ball at the RC 10-yard line when the Wildcats fumbled a snap to the punter. Alleghany’s Neeko Jeter ran it in from there to extend the Cougars’ lead to 28-0 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 to go up 41-0 with 5:11 left. After play resumed, the Cougars fumbled a punt by RC, and the Wildcats recovered the ball at the Alleghany 37-yard line, but they weren’t able to get any closer before halftime.
After a three-minute halftime to compensate for the long delay, Alleghany’s 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.
Fox led all players with 60 rushing yards on seven carries. Teammate Ryan Maxwell, who led the Wildcats with 89 yards in their 42-0 loss to Staunton a week earlier, was held to 24 yards on nine carries against Alleghany.
Before they begin Valley District action next week, the Wildcats will make their first trip outside of the county this season when they play at Blacksburg (1-2) on Friday at 7 p.m.
AHS 21 20 14 55 RC 0 0 8 8 First Quarter AHS – Turner 14 pass from Jordan (Hale kick) AHS – Hunter Knighton 18 run (Hale kick) AHS – Hayden Knighton 55 interception return (Hale kick) Second Quarter AHS – Jeter 10 run (Hale kick) AHS – Hayden Knighton 19 pass from Jordan (kick failed) AHS – Jordan 23 run (Hale kick) Third Quarter AHS – Hunter Knighton 38 run (Hale kick) RC – Fox 10 run (Welsh pass from Layman) AHS – DePriest 50 run (Hale kick) AHS RC
First downs 7 7 Rushes-yards 9-215 30-102 Passing yards 122 25 Comp-Att-Int 6-10-1 1-15-1 Fumbles-lost 1-1 3-2 Penalties-yards 4-45 3-20
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING – AHS, Hunter Knighton 2-56, DePriest 1-50, Hayden Knighton 1-34, Jeter 2-32, Jordan 1-23, Nicely 2-20. RC, Fox 7-60, Maxwell 9-24, Wade 6-10, Grimm 1-7, Saunders 2-1, Emore 1-1, Layman 4- (-1).
PASSING – AHS, Jordan 5-9-1 105, Entsminger 1-1-0 17. RC, Layman 1-15-1 25.
RECEIVING – AHS, Turner 3-44, Hayslett 1-37, Jeter 1-22, Hayden Knighton 1-19. RC, Fox 1-25.
