The Forrest Rockets had victory in their hands for the entire ballgame at Watertown Friday night until the Purple Tigers scored with 26 seconds left and converted a 2-point conversion to win 8-6.

“They are very disappointed, but as usual they will pick themselves up and move forward,” Forrest coach Brent Johns said.

The Forrest offense managed only one touchdown, a first quarter 2-yard touchdown run by Troy Turner, but they wasted two more scoring opportunities on a pair of fumbles inside the Watertown 5-yard line.

“Turnovers continue to be our Achilles’ heel,” Johns said. “We are currently spending about 50 minutes of practice time each week on ball security.”

“Coach (Matthew) Delk does an excellent job of teaching and emphasizing the importance of ball security. As the head coach I guess I will need to devote even more time in practice for ball security drills moving forward.”

The Rockets’ defense gave up 493 yards of total offense to Watertown, but the bend but don’t break strategy worked as they came up with enough big plays to win.

On offense, the Rockets rushed for 182 yards with Nick McClendon leading the way with 25 carries for 122 yards.

“We felt like we were in control the entire night on both sides of the ball,” Johns said. “Pretty much any play we called on offense was working.”

The Forrest (1-5, 1-2) defense will have to come up huge on Friday night when the Rockets host Region 5/2A leader and fifth-ranked Lewis County (6-0, 3-0) at Murrey E. Holton Field in Chapel Hill.

The unbeaten Panthers from Hohenwald average 39.2 points per game.

The two teams have not met since the 1980 season when the Panthers beat Forrest 28-7 in the second round of the playoffs.

“I think this is the perfect opponent to get our players attention to help with getting past Friday,” Johns said. “It gives us an opportunity to try and knock off the best team in our region. It’s a challenge.”

Forrest 7 0 0 0-7

Watertown 0 0 0 8-8

Scoring

First Quarter

Forrest-Troy Turner 2-yard run, Carson Baker PAT, 4:41

Fourth Quarter

Watertown-Heath Price 5-yard run, Price PAT run, 0:26

Total Offense-Forrest 259, Watertown 493

Rushing-Forrest 182, Watertown 259

Passing-Forrest 77, Watertown 234

Turnovers-Forrest 2, Watertown 1

Penalties-Forrest 4-60, Watertown 6-53

Forrest Offense

Rushing-Nick McClendon 25-122, Troy Turner 11-39-TD, Wes McCoy 3-12, Blaize Sweeney 1-6, Layton Bennett 1-3, Josh Meglis 3-0

Passing

Josh Meglis 3-6-77, Layton Bennett 0-2, Nick McClendon 0-1

Receiving-Parker Stuard 1-46, Pryor Haines 1-16, Nick McClendon 1-15

Kicking

PAT-Carson Baker 1-1

Punting-Wes McCoy 4-73

Kick Returns

Kickoffs-Troy Turner 2-36

Punts-Spencer McCown 1-8

Defense

Tackles-Drew Carlisle 9, Parker Stuard 6, Austin Geeting 5, Bryton Spitzley 5, Blaize Sweeney 5, Josh Hill 4 (SACK, FUM REC)), Wes McCoy 4, Nathan Trout 4, Nick McClendon 4, Alex Patmore 3, Dowlen Hosford 2, Spencer McCown 2, Dylan Pendley 2, Troy Turner 2, Pryor Haines 1, Joseph Whittaker 1