Blues Score ‘Quick And Fast’

PM Wins Season Opener Over RC, 33-16

Led by three touchdown passes from quarterback Nathan Glass, the Parry Mc-Cluer High School football team earned a 33-16 road win over local rival Rockbridge County in the season opener on Friday night at Prasnicki-Ross Field at Veterans Stadium in Lexington.

In the 22 times the two schools have met, the Fighting Blues, who beat the Wildcats 56-14 last year in Buena Vista, have won 10 times, while RC has won 12 times.

PM got its offense going early, scoring two touchdowns in the first six minutes of the game.

Glass, a junior, threw a 38yard TD pass to Jacob Schafer just over three minutes into the game, and Sean O’Connor made the extra-point kick to give the Blues a 7-0 lead. For the game, Glass completed 8-of-15 passes with one interception for 150 yards.

PM’s Braden Conley then recovered a Wildcat fumble on the RC 38-yard line, and the Blues worked their way toward the end zone before Glass threw a 5-yard TD pass to Parker Snider to extend PM’s lead to 13-0 with 6:33 left in the quarter.

Emphasizing the importance of the strong start, secondyear PM head coach Jeremiah Brockenbrough said, “The key tonight was, we had to come out firing on all cylinders. We wanted to show everything we had early. We don’t have a lot of depth, so we were trying to score quick and score fast. We did.”

After the teams traded possessions, RC’s Gabe Wade intercepted Glass at the PM 10-yard line. The Wildcats got within three yards of the end zone before an illegal procedure penalty pushed them back five yards. Facing fourth-and-8, the Wildcats went to Aiden Meyers, who made a 25-yard field goal to cut PM’s lead to 13-3 with 1:09 left in the quarter.

Penalties hurt RC throughout the game, as the Wildcats had 10 penalties for 95 yards, while PM had six penalties for 68 yards.

The Blues went to their running game on their next drive, with Shafer and Jackson Brockenbrough carrying the ball down the field. PM ended the drive with a 1-yard TD run by Brockenbrough, and Glass threw a two-point conversion pass to Thomas Conner to extend PM’s lead to 21-3 with 9:47 left in the first half.

On the Wildcats’ next drive, Elijah Fox and Eli Sorrels made a series of runs to set up senior quarterback Jayden Layman for a 30-yard TD pass to Sorrells with 5:52 left, and a PAT by Meyers cut PM’s lead to 21-10. For the game, Layman, returning as RC’s starting quarterback, completed 3-of-11 passes with one interception for 43 yards.

The Blues responded with a 79-yard drive that ended with a 1-yard TD run by Brockenbrough, stretching PM’s lead to 27-10 with 2:24 left in the first half.

The only scoring in the third quarter was from the Wildcats. Gaining yards from penalties and runs by Pat Looney, the Wildcats scored when Wade made a 10-yard TD run to trim PM’s lead to 27-16 with 6:03 left in the quarter.

PM’s defense wouldn’t allow any more scoring, however. Just over a minute into the fourth quarter, the Wildcats punted the ball and recovered a PM fumble on the return at the PM 16-yard line. Layman made a 6-yard run to get the ball 10 yards from the endzone, but the Blues’ defense pushed RC back, and the Wildcats turned the ball over on downs.

The Blues sealed the win with a 17-yard TD pass from Glass to Jase Barger with 2:40 left in the game.

On the next play, Jonavan Dunn intercepted RC sophomore backup quarterback Elijah Watkins at the Wildcats’ 30-yard line, and the Blues milked the clock for the remainder of the game.

Brockenbrough said defense was the key for the Blues in the second half. “Offense played really well at the beginning,” he said. “We slowed down a little bit, and then all of a sudden, here at the end, the defense just showed up. The interception at the end from Jonavan Dunn was huge.”

The Blues racked up 370 total yards of offense, 220 rushing and 150 in the air. Jackson Brockenbrough led all players with 100 rushing yards and a TD on 15 carries, while Shafer rushed for 80 yards on 12 carries, and Glass had 35 rushing yards on three totes. Barger led PM’s receivers with 46 yards and a TD on three catches.

RC, which didn’t have a first down until several minutes into the second quarter, had 244 total yards of offense, 201 rushing and 43 in the air. Sorrells led the Wildcats with 77 rushing yards on 10 carries, Earhart ran the ball five times for 40 yards, and Looney rushed for 28 yards on four totes. Sorrells also led RC’s receivers with two catches for 40 yards and a TD.

Evaluating his team’s overall performance, Brockenbrough said, “At the end of the day, we knew we were gonna mistakes, and it was just whether or not we could sustain them, and they showed a lot of character tonight and poise to be able to finish out how they did.”

Brockenbrough noted that the Blues are only starting three seniors: Barger, Conley and Jackson Brockenbrough. “When the rest of them are freshmen and sophomores and a few juniors, that says a lot,” he said.

On the other side, RC head coach Martin Cox said, “We didn’t play very well. The bottom line is, they wanted it more than we did. We acted like we wanted it, but we came out here, and we didn’t really want it.”

“Just like they always do, the Blues fight hard,” added Cox. “I’ve been here three years. I can’t take anything away from them. They came to play. Whether it’s at their house or this house, they come to play all the time. All the credit goes to them.”

Both teams will play away on Friday at 7 p.m., with the Blues taking on Prince Edward County (0-1) in Farmville and the Wildcats facing Staunton (0-1) in Gypsy Hill Park.

Looking forward to the Blues’ next game after a strong opener, Brockenbrough said his players “showed a lot of poise tonight. I think going forward to next week, we’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got some mistakes to fix, but I think they showed that they can play some football tonight. I’m really proud of them.”

For the Wildcats, Cox said, “We’ve just got to keep getting better. I think we’re better at this time this year than we were last year, but we’re still not where we need to be, obviously.”

PM 13 14 0 6 33 RC 3 7 6 0 16 First Quarter PM – Shafer 38 pass from Glass (O’Connor kick) PM – Snider 14 pass from Glass (kick failed) RC – Meyers 25 FG Second Quarter PM – Brockenbrough 1 run (Conner pass from Glass) RC – Sorrells 30 pass from Layman (Meyers kick) PM – Brockenbrough 1 run (run failed) Third Quarter RC – Wade 10 run (pass failed) Fourth Quarter PM – Barger 17 pass from Glass (run failed) PM RC

First downs 16 11 Rushes-yards 32-220 30-201 Passing yards 50 43 Comp-Att-Int 8-15-1 3-11-1 Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-1 Penalties-yards 6-68 10-95

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING – PM, Jackson Brockenbrough 15-100, Shafer 12-80, Glass 3-35, Z. Dunn 1-5, Barger 1-0. RC, Sorrells 10-77, Earhart 5-40, Looney 4-28, Layman 4-23, Wade 3-18, Fox 3-13, K. Knick 1-2.

PASSING – PM, Glass 8-15-1 150. RC, Layman 3-9-0 43, Watkins 0-2-1 0. RECEIVING –PM, Barger 3-46, Shafer 1-38, Snider 2-31, Z. Dunn 1-22. RC, Sorrells 2-40, Fox 1-3.