Forrest squanders early lead, falls to Collinwood

The Forrest Rockets scored two first quarter touchdowns Friday night at Collinwood before the Trojans stormed back, scoring 33 unanswered points and then held off a furious Rockets comeback attempt to win 40-34.

Rocket quarterback Brooks Lamb came out on fire, tossing a 51-yard touchdown strike to Jacob Daughrity midway through the opening quarter and then added a 31-yard score to Trevor Wellisley at the 2:16 mark to open up a two-touchdown lead for Chapel Hill.

After that, Collinwood quarterback Logan Montgomery led the Trojans' charge, scoring on an 8-yard TD run early in the second quarter before flinging touchdowns of 24 and 18 yards to Zack Reeves and a five-yarder to Dominic Narato with 1:28 remaining in the first half to send the Rockets to the locker room on the short end of a 27-14 deficit.

The Rockets got the ball to begin the second half, but Payton Risner scooped up a Forrest fumble and raced 32-yards for a touchdown to put the visiting squad into a deep 33-14 sinkhole.

Forrest tried to comeback, pulling to within 33-20 on a Daughrity 9-yard touchdown scamper late in the third quarter, but once again, Montgomery squelched the Rockets' momentum when he rambled 56 yards for a touchdown with 9:11 remaining in the contest.

Forrest scored twice in the final eight minutes on 1-yard TD runs by Lamb and Brandon Beech, but it was too little, too late for the Rockets, who dropped to 1-1 on the young season.

Forrest outgained Collinwood 426 to 368 in the ballgame, but three Lamb (13-27, 273 yards) interceptions and the Risner fumble return for the TD did in the Rockets.

Daughrity had a huge night, catching three Lamb passes for 179 yards and a touchdown, while rushing for 12 yards and one score.

Collinwood turned it over twice on a pair of interceptions by Dakota Zimmerman.

Montgomery finished with 19 rushes for 92 yards and added 167 passing yards for the Trojans (1-0), who travel to Richland on Friday, while the Rockets entertain Community (1-1) in their home opener at "The Rock" with game time set for 7p.m.