Blazers Blank Wildcats, 40-0

The Rockbridge County High School football team suffered a 40-0 loss in its homecoming game against Valley District rival Spotswood on Friday night at Prasnicki-Ross Field at Veterans Stadium in Lexington.

The Wildcats (1-7 overall, 1-3 district) were coming off their bye week on a high after earning a 26-17 road victory over district rival Harrisonburg on Oct. 11 for their first win in nearly two years.

The Wildcats elected to receive the opening kickoff after winning the coin toss. On their first possession, the Wildcats faced a thirdand- short that was picked up by Jayden Layman on an inside handoff. On the next play, Spotswood’s Camden Langridge intercepted RC sophomore quarterback Elijah Watkins.

The Wildcats’ defense held strong on the opening drive for defending district champion Spotswood (6-3, 4-1). RC defensive end Brady Edwards recovered a fumble caused by a bad snap and set the Wildcats up on their own 48-yard line.

After a third-and-out, RC elected to punt. Tyler Woods received a low snap on the punt and was tackled at the RC 35. The Wildcats held the Trailblazers on successive downs, but Spotswood’s Elton Shabani made a 35-yard field goal, giving the Blazers a 3-0 lead with 4:09 left in the first quarter.

RC head coach Martin Cox praised his team’s defense for efforts early in the game. “Our defense played really well today,” he said. “Unfortunately, when you can’t keep the offense on the field, there’s only so much they can do, drive after drive. Just hats off to them as a whole unit. The score was not indicative of their performance.”

In the second quarter, the Blazers received a short punt and started in Rockbridge territory. On the first play, Spotswood running back Cullen Kraft rushed for a 19-yard touchdown, and Shabani’s extrapoint kick made it 10-0 with 8:46 left in the first half.

After receiving another punt from the Wildcats, Spotswood quarterback Elliot Brown found tight end Rayne Dean for a 48-yard TD pass. After Spotswood’s PAT missed, the Blazers led 16-0 with 7:29 left in the first half.

The Blazers tacked on another TD when Da’Quan Hamilton ran it in from 11 yards out, and Shabani’s kick extended Spotswood’s lead to 23-0 with 1:58 left in the first half.

At halftime, senior Mattie Robinson was crowned as RC’s homecoming queen, while senior Drew Potter was named king.

The second half was much of the same for the Blazers. After receiving the kickoff, the Blazers took just four plays to get ti the Wildcats’ 5-yard line. Hamilton punched in his second TD from there, and Shabani’s PAT made the score 30-0 with 9:38 left in the third quarter.

The Blazers scored another TD in the third quarter after Langridge recovered an RC fumble. The fumble recovery set Spotswood up at the RC 11. Dean then scored his second TD of the night, catching a 12-yard pass from Brown in the corner of the end zone. Shabani’s PAT kick made it 37-0 with 9:13 left in the third quarter.

Shabani made another field goal, a 29-yarder, for the Blazers with 1:55 left in the third quarter to make it 40-0.

In the fourth quarter, the Wildcats had their biggest play when Watkins handed the ball off to Layman and received a flea flicker pass back, where Watkins found Joseph Dorey down the right sideline of the field. The pass was defended, but several flags signaled pass interference for a bit RC gain.

The Wildcats punted after another series, and Spotswood bled the clock out with their reserves to end the game.

The Blazers racked up 285 total yards of offense while holding RC to 86 yards. Hamilton led all players with 125 rushing yards on 125 carries, while Kraft ran the ball three times for 41 yards. Pat Looney led RC with 31 yards on two carries, and Gabe Wade rushed for 19 yards on six totes.

Brown completed 7-of-12 passes for 110 yards and three TDs, while Watkins completed 4-of-10 passes for 35 yards. Dean led Spotswood’s receivers with 93 yards on five catches, while Dorey led RC’s receivers with 32 yards on two receptions.

Reviewing his team’s performance, Cox said, “We made too many mistakes today. We had two really good weeks of practice, really got prepared, and started out well but we simply made too many mistakes.”

The Wildcats will continue district action this Friday when they play at Turner Ashby (8-0, 4-0) at 7 p.m. in Bridgewater.

SHS 3 20 17 0 40

RC 0 0 0 0 0

First Quarter SHS – Shabani 36 FG Second Quarter SHS – Kraft 19 pass from Brown (Shabani kick) SHS – Dean 48 pass from Brown (kick field) SHS – Hamilton 11 run (Shabani kick) Third Quarter SHS – Hamilton 5 run (Shabani kick) SHS – Dean 12 pass from Brown (Shabani kick) SHS – Shabani 36 FG Fourth Quarter No scoring

SHS RC

Rushes-yards 22-175 31-51 Passing yards 110 35 Comp-Att-Int 7-12-0 4-10-0

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING – SHS, Hamilton 13-125, Kraft 3-41, Blackwell 3-8, Conahan 3-1. RC, Looney 2-31, Wade 6-19, Earhart 4-17, Meyers 7-5, Dorey 1-5, Layman 2-4, Watkins 9-(-30).

PASSING – SHS, Brown 7-12-0 110. RC, Watkins 4-10-0 35. RECEIVING – SHS, Dean 5-93, Kraft 1-19, Robinson 1-(-2). RC, Dorey 2-32, Welsh III 1-3, Looney 1-0.