The Forrest Rockets came tantalizingly close to pulling off a great comeback win over Cascade at "The Rock" in Chapel Hill Friday night, but their lone turnover of the night was a heartbreaker, fumbling at the four-yard line with one minute remaining in the ballgame to hand the Champions a 21-19 victory.

"We drove the ball down the field very well and got excited and just turned the football over there at the end, we just have to keep our composure and keep working," said Forrest head coach Brian Coleman. "That was our first turnover of the night, but it was very costly. We had the field goal team ready and we were just trying to get in position."

Battling back

The Rockets played from behind most of the night, beginning with a game tying three-yard touchdown run by Zach McClendon with 11:08 remaining in the first half.

The Champions opened the scoring on their second possession of the contest, driving 38 yards in just five plays, capped off by a four-yard touchdown run by Creed Rose.

Cascade answered Forrest's second quarter score, marching 76 yards to the Rockets' four-yard line where Austin Haas found Jesse Barnes on a slant play in the middle of the end zone for a touchdown, putting the Wartrace squad up 14-7.

Not to outdone, the Rockets came right back as they matched Cascade's 80-yard drive with one of their own.

Rockets score

The five-minute plus drive was capped off with Zach McClendon's second TD of the game, this time from a dozen yards out, making it 14-13.

Chris Haggard's extra point try sailed wide and the Rockets trailed by the single point.

The Champions were hot on offense, scoring again with 3:05 remaining in the first half on a Haas 21-yard strike to Demmoya Jones and Trent Sutton added the extra point, making it a 21-13 ballgame.

After the Cascade score, the Forrest offense was unable to run out the clock and had to punt the ball away.

Ivan Spencer came up with a nice punt return and a personal foul on the special teams play gave Cascade the ball near midfield with less than a minute left to play in the first half.

Sweeney on the spot

The Champions punched a first down ticket at the Rockets' 34-yard with 7.4 seconds left before Haas took off on a broken play and rumbled down the sideline towards the end zone.

Boone Sweeney came out of nowhere with a touchdown saving tackle and the buzzer sounded, ending the first half with the Rockets still trailing 21-13.

Forrest's defense came up huge in the second half, blanking the Champions the remainder of the contest, but Cascade was as tough, shutting out the Rockets the entire third quarter to maintain the 21-13 lead, entering the final 12 minutes of play.

The Rockets finally got something going on their initial drive of the fourth quarter, marching 47-yards to the Cascade eight yard where Thaddeus Reyes hooked up with Nolan Ferris for an eight-yard touchdown catch on a fourth and goal play, making it a 21-19 contest with less than five minutes to play in the game.

Almost there

On the potential game tying two-point try, Reyes went right on a quarterback keeper, leaping for the goal line, while reaching out the ball to what looked like a conversion, but the play was called no good to keep Cascade's lead at two-points.

After a kickoff out of bounds by Forrest, Cascade took the re-kick to midfield and pushed ahead for a first down, but a double penalty on the next play made it first down and twenty-two.

Three unsuccessful running plays, a Logan Hollingsworth sack, two FHS timeouts, plus a Cascade punt gave the Rockets the ball at their own 20-yard line with 1:54 remaining the game.

A late hit and a pass interference call against the Champions gave Forrest the pigskin at the Cascade 42-yard line with 1:20 to play.

On the next play, Reyes floated a perfect pass to Jacob Daughrity, who snagged the rock and rumbled all the way down to the Cascade nine-yard line.

Final shot

On the next play, Cascade's Tristan Soloman fell on the loose ball with 1:01 remaining in the game, letting the air of the Forrest comeback as the Champions went into the victory formation for the win to remain undefeated on the season at 2-0, while the Rockets fell to 1-1.

"By no means is our season over with one loss," said Coleman. "We told the kids, I hope this fuels our fire where we go back to work."

Next game

On Friday night at "The Rock", Forrest winds up their three-game home stand with a battle versus the defending District 9-A champion and number one ranked Moore County (2-0), who shutout Cornersville 34-0 in Lynchburg.

"This is a big game already, every region game is big and we just happen to get the best region team first," said Coleman. "They are the top team in the region a lot of people think and they are a well-coached team, but we have them at home and we have to give them our best effort."

Stats

Forrest rushed for 197 yards on the ground versus Cascade with Zach McClendon leading the way with 81 yards on 15 carries and 2 touchdowns.

Tyler McClendon had 63 yards on 14 touches, Daughrity had 34 yards on 10 carries, while Reyes rushed for 12 yards, and Austin Harmon had four yards and Brandon Anderson ran for a deuce.

Reyes completed four out of ten pass attempts for 64 yards, including the TD strike for Ferris' second touchdown reception of the season and Daughrity caught three balls from Reyes for 56 yards.