Blues Ground Rockets

Rushing Game Nets 323 Yards – 210 For Shafer

After dropping its first Pioneer District football contest of the season, Parry Mc-Cluer High School looked to bounce back last Friday night when the Blues hit the road for the first time since early September.

And the Fighting Blues (5-2 overall, 1-1 district) rebounded in a big way, blowing open a close game in the second half and rolling past Craig County 37-6 in New Castle. A week earlier, the Blues had suffered a 35-13 home loss to Narrows.

“This week was big,” said head PM head coach Jeremiah Brockenbrough. “Mentally we had to get back on track. We got back to doing what we do right.”

The game didn’t start exactly as the Blues would have wanted, with the Rockets (5-2, 1-1) taking the opening kickoff, driving 67 yards in seven plays and taking an early 6-0 lead when Carter Calfee scored from 17 yards out with 8:48 to play in the first quarter.

The Blues started their first possession of the game in inauspicious fashion. On fourth-and-7 from the PM 43-yard line, it appeared as if quarterback Nathan Glass scrambled for a first down at the Craig County 48-yard line, but that gain was erased by a holding penalty. A false start on the next snap forced the Blues to punt.

And the special teams came up huge. Jase Barger got off a 49-yard kick, which was downed at the Rocket 14. From there, the defense took over. Thomas Conner dropped Craig County’s Joshua Craft for a 4-yard loss on first down, and two plays later a Rocket punt gave the Blues possession at the Craig County 42.

“The punt was huge, in a critical situation,” noted Brockenbrough. “We knew going in it would take us a series or two to settle in [against the single-wing offense]. We switched from a five-man front to a four-man front, and I think that confused them a little bit.”

The Blues tied the game when Jackson Brockenbrough scored from a yard out with only 28 seconds remaining in the opening period.

The PM defense rose up again in the second quarter. With the Rockets starting a drive near midfield, a mis- handled center snap, one of nine such errors for Craig County in the game, netted a loss of three yards. The next two plays resulted in negative yardage as well, and the Rockets were forced to punt. That kick traveled only five yards, and PM was set up nicely at the Craig County 43-yard line.

“We were slanting into the center every play,” said Brockenbrough, explaining how his defense contributed to the plethora of Craig County exchange errors. “Our goal was to cause a disruption between the center and the quarterback.”

PM moved to the Craig 29, but things went awry when Glass was sacked for a 12-yard loss on third down, all the way back to the Rocket 41. The Blues decided to go for it on fourth-and-21, digging deep into the playbook to pull out the “extra- special pass,” a fake reverse, flea-flicker pass, which saw Glass connect with tight end Parker Snider for a 40-yard gain all the way to the Craig County 1-yard line.

“We knew we would get the ball to start the second half, and the defense was playing well,” said Brockenbrough on the decision to go for it on fourth-and-21. “We thought if we get it, we get it. If not, we’d go into halftime tied 6-6.

“That’s one of those plays we put in back in the spring, but we had never had a situation where we needed a spark,” Brockenbrough continued. “We were getting a one-high safety, so I told Nathan to chuck it; somebody is going to be open.”

Glass did the honors from there, sneaking the ball into the end zone. Jackson Brockenbrough ran in the two-point try, and the Blues had a 14-6 lead that they took into the locker room at halftime, but just barely.

Craig County threatened late in the second quarter, driving all the way to the PM 12 before time expired on the first half.

The second half was all PM. The Blues scored on all four of their second-half possessions, and they did it in several different ways.

On the second play of the third quarter, Jacob Shafer broke loose on a misdirection play to sprint 76 yards for a TD. The Blues then capped a methodical 15-play, 84-yard drive that consumed nearly eight minutes of the game clock with a 2-yard run from Barger.

“The big play for a touchdown is great,” said Brockenbrough. “But at the end of the day, when you can drive the ball, your offense becomes your best defense. You are controlling the ball on both sides at that point.”

Late in the fourth quarter, Sean O’Connor booted a 34-yard field goal, and Shafer capped the scoring with another long TD run, this one from 48 yards away.

Friday night turned into a career game for Shafer. He carried the ball 15 times for 210 yards and tallied a pair of TDs. As a team, the Blues rushed for 323 yards, with Barger chipping in with 66 yards on 10 tries.

Craig County, thanks to 57 yards in losses because of fumbles, finished the game with a mere 154 total yards. Craft led the way for the Rockets, rushing for 114 yards on 18 carries. Calfee added 68 yards on 10 totes.

The Rockets did threaten to stay in the game after Shafer’s first long TD run, driving all the way to the PM three midway through the third quarter, but some self-inflicted wounds and a couple of stellar defensive plays thwarted that threat.

On second-and-goal from the three, the Rockets suffered one of their nine fumbled snaps, resulting in a loss of 13 yards. On third down, Glass knocked away a pass in the end zone, and Peyton Montgomery did the same on fourth down to turn Craig County away.

Defensively, the Blues were led by Snider, who recorded seven solo tackles to go along with five assists. Shafer supplemented his offensive effort with six solos and three assists on the defensive side of the football, while Conner was in on seven tackles, including two tackles for loss.

The next two weeks might prove daunting for Parry McCluer as the Blues will face a pair of unbeaten teams on the road, beginning this Friday night with a trip to Altavista, with kickoff at 7 p.m., before traveling to Bath County the following Friday, Nov. 1.

“We’re going to take it one game at a time,” said Brockenbrough. “Altavista, right now, is the best [Class 1] team in the state, hands down. It’s going to be a test not only of our ability but also of our mental [toughness]. It’s going to be a good way to gauge ourselves.”

PM 6 8 6 17 37 CC 6 0 0 0 6 First Quarter CC – Calfee 17 run (kick failed) PM – Ja. Brockenbrough 1 run (kick failed) Second Quarter PM – Glass 1 run (Ja. Brockenbrough run) Third Quarter PM – Shafer 76 run (kick blocked) Fourth Quarter PM – Barger 2 run (Ja. Brockenbrough run) PM – O’Connor 34 FG PM – Shafer 48 run (kick failed) PM CC

First downs 16 10 Rushes-yards 47-323 43-139 Passing yards 51 15 Comp-Att-Int 2-6-0 1-5-1 Fumbles-lost 0-0 9-1 Penalties-yards 4-35 1-2 Time of possession 25:51 22:09

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING – PM, Shafer 15-210, Barger 10-66, Ja. Brockenbrough 16-44, Glass 6-3. CC, Craft 18-114, Calfee 10-68, Wolfe 6-8, Nichols 1-6, Team 8-(-57).

PASSING – PM, Glass 2-6-0 51. CC, Wolfe 1-51 15.

RECEIVING –PM, Snider 1-40, Ja. Brockenbrough 1-11. CC, Craft 1-15.