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Led by three rushing touchdowns from junior running back Jackson Brockenbrough, the Parry McCluer High School football team cruised to a 45-12 home win over Pioneer District rival Craig County on Friday night at Bobby Williams Field in Buena Vista.
With the victory, the Fighting Blues (5-2 overall, 1-1 district) bounced back from a 56-21 setback in their district opener a week earlier at Narrows.
On Brockenbrough’s big night, he led all players with 106 rushing yards on 12 carries, and he gave credit to his teammates for his success running the ball. “The line, they played a big role in it, but we’re getting better each week,” said Brockenbourgh.
In particular, Brockenbrough praised teammates Shaiden Ratcliffe and Parker Camden. He said they are “doing a really good blocking.”
Brockenbrough added that, following the loss to Narrows, the Blues “were all locked in this week at practice.”
Jackson’s uncle, PM head coach Jeremiah Brockenbrough, was proud of his team after the game. “Right now, we’re spreading the football around,” he said. “We’re catching it. My quarterback’s throwing well. We’re able to run the ball when we’re wanting to at certain times.”
The PM coach was especially pleased with the Blues’ defense, which forced three turnovers from the Rockets (2-4, 0-2) and shut them out until the final five minutes of the game. He said defensive coordinators Elgin Davis and Zack Fowler “are doing a heck of a job on defense. We had to make a few adjustments that we made wrong last Friday of our defensive line. This week, we fixed it, put the guys in the right techniques, and doing a few different things up front.”
At the beginning of the game, after forcing a turnover on downs from the Rockets, the Blues scored on their first drive when Brockenbrough used his speed and agility to make a 40-yard run to the end zone less than four minutes into the game. A two-point conversion run by JJ Jones put PM up 8-0.
On the first play of their next possession, the Rockets fumbled the ball, and Jackson Brockenbrough recovered it at the Craig 9-yard line. He then made a 4-yard run before running for a 5-yard TD, and a two-point conversion run by Zavion Dunn extended PM’s lead to 16-0 with 7:39 left in the first quarter. Jones intercepted a pass by Craig quarterback Jaycob Wolfe at the Craig 40-yard line, but the Blues only advanced a yard before turning the ball over on downs.
Brockenbrough scored his third TD on a 10yard run two minutes into the second quarter to extend the Blues’ lead to 22-0. On the Blues’ next drive, a 29-yard pass from PM sophomore quarterback Nathan Glass to Landon Catlett set up Jones for an 11-yard TD run with 4:46 left in the half, and a two-point conversion run by Dunn stretched PM’s lead to 30-0.
Jones had a solid running game for PM, rushing for 32 yards on four carries.
The Rockets fumbled the ball on their next drive, and PM defensive end Zack Mook recovered the ball at the Craig 37-yard line. Glass then completed a 13-yard pass to Catlett and, after an 11-yard run by Brockenbrough, Glass completed a 13-yard TD pass to Catlett. A two-point conversion run by Glass extended PM’s lead to 38-0 with 2:07 left in the first half.
For the game, Glass completed 3-of-8 passes for 55 yards, with all three completed passes going to Catlett.
At halftime, the Blues honored the members of their 10th PM Hall of Fame class, along with the Blues’ 1983 state championship football team and their cheerleaders. The inductees, who were formally inducted at a banquet at the PM gym on Saturday night, were Landon Camper, Joey Clark, Adam Gilbert, Donnie Stinnett and Terry Vest Smyth. (See separate story on inductions.)
For almost the entire second half, the teams played with a running clock because the Blues’ lead was 35 points or more.
PM’s lone TD of the second half came just over four minutes in. After Jones intercepted Wolfe and returned the ball to the Craig 19yard line, Dunn ran it from there to the end zone. Braden Conley then converted his only extra-point kick of the game to make it 45-0.
With the large lead, the Blues put in a lot of their reserves, as well as junior varsity players, but the Rockets kept battling and finally got on the scoreboard when Wolfe ran for a 6-yard TD with 4:53 left in the game. Following a defensive stop, Craig scored again when Wolfe completed a 48-yard TD pass to Joshua Craft with 1:12 left.
Wolfe had a solid game for Craig, completing 8-of-15 passes with two interceptions for 108 yards and the TD. Leading the Rockets on the ground was Carter Calfee, who rushed for 84 yards on 17 carries.
The Blues racked up 185 rushing yards, while Craig had 95 rushing yards.
Giving credit to the Rockets, who were missing a couple of players due to injuries, for battling until the end, Coach Brockenbrough said, “You’ve got to give it to Craig. They come out every Friday night and play as hard as they can.” Brockenbrough said Craig head coach James Fisher “has done a great job.”
“Hats off to them,” added Brockenbrough. “They never fold. They never quit.”
Pleased the Blues were able to give their less experienced players a chance to get on the field in front of home fans, Coach Brockenbrough said, “Anytime you can get up on a team and you can put in some of your younger guys to keep them interested is pretty big. The JV team is 5-1, so that’s pretty good. We’re still looking to get more numbers out each year because we’ve got guys that should be out on the football field right now. We’re wanting to win a lot of ballgames and let people get back into playing the game of football.”
Making big tackles to lead PM’s defense were Mook, Cole Chittum and Rayshan Richardson.
The Blues will step out of district action to play host to Altavista (5-2) for their homecoming game on Friday at 7 p.m.
“That’s going to be a big challenge for our program,” said Coach Brockenbrough. That’s a really good football school. … This year, they’re pretty good, but I think we’re pretty good, too.”
CC 0 0 0 12 12 PM 16 22 7 0 45 First Quarter PM – Brockenbrough 40 run (Jones run) PM – Brockenbrough 5 run (Dunn run) Second Quarter PM – Brockenbrough 10 run (run failed) PM – Jones 11 run (Dunn run) PM – Catlett 13 pass from Glass (Glass run) Third Quarter PM – Dunn 19 run (Conley kick) Fourth Quarter CC – Wolfe 6 run (pass failed) CC – Craft 48 pass from Wolfe (pass failed) CC PM
First downs 6 6 Rushes-yards 36-95 24-185 Passing yards 108 55 Comp-Att-Int 8-15-2 3-10-0 Fumbles-lost 2-1 2-1 Penalties-yards 3-15 2-10
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING – CC, Calfee 17-84, Craft 4-15, Wolfe 13-(-2), Team 2-(-2). PM, Jackson Brockenbrough 12-106, Jones 4-32, Dunn 1-19, Snider 3-16, Camden 1-8, Jordan Brockenbourgh 2-4, Smals 1-0.
PASSING – CC, Wolfe 8-15-2 108. PM, Glass 3-8-0 55, Jones 0-1-0 0, Smals 0-1-0 0.
RECEIVING –CC, Craft 2-48, Huffman 2-35, Calfee 3-16, Lucas 1-9. PM, Catlett 3-55.
