The resurgent Forrest Rockets travelled to Eagleville Friday night to take on a longtime foe and they turned in a dominating performance via a 28-7 win to move to 3-0 on the season.

The Rockets, who made an appearance this week in the Associated Press’ Top 10 Poll at number nine, outgained Eagleville 387-to-182 in total yardage.

Forrest pounded the rock, rushing for 332 yards in the contest as they came in with a rough and tumble approach to start the game and never let up.

“That’s how we build our program, we want to play physical football and we played physical football from the first quarter to the last quarter tonight,” Forrest coach Eli Stephenson said. “Our line was dominating up front and our backs are physical backs, they are old school backs and those guys don’t look to go out of bounds and that’s what I like to see.”

Nick McClendon led the senior laden backfield attack with 18 smash mouth carries for 115 yards and two touchdowns while Blaize Sweeney ran over everybody in sight, toting the rock six times for 98 yards.

“Thanks to our O-Line, we couldn’t do anything without them, they set it up and we hit the holes, we appreciate them,” Sweeney said. “I didn’t want to leave my senior year knowing Eagleville beat us three times out of four, I wish we could have got them in the series, but it is what it is.”

“We wanted to show some dominance tonight and leave with pride, it is a great start for us, but we are nowhere near done yet.”

Cole Villazon ran the ball nine times for 96 yards and scored on a 51-yard jaunt to open the scoring.

Junior quarterback Max Kirby had another solid outing under center, completing two passes for 55 yards, including a 41-yard touchdown toss to senior tight end Joel Burton.

Both squads punted on their first possessions, but on the Rockets’ second touch they struck pay dirt.

Sweeney busted an 11-yard gain on first down before Villazon took a pitch and broke to the outside, running down the home sideline for a 51-yard score.

Zoe Long, who made all four of her PAT attempts in the contest, drilled the point after boot and the Rockets led 7-0 with 7:44 remaining in the first quarter.

The Forrest defense stymied the Eagles again and took over at their own 25-yard line after a punt went out of bounds.

Two penalties moved the Rockets back as they faced a first-and-19, but a 29-yard third down run by Sweeney kept the drive alive and three plays later, Kirby found a wide open Burton streaking down the seam for a touchdown.

The Forrest defense pinned back its ears for the pass rush and forced an intentional grounding call to put the Eagles way behind the chains and two plays in to the second quarter, Villazon made a fair catch signal on another Eagleville punt at the Rockets’ 19-yard line.

Forrest pounded Eagleville in to submission as they put together a grueling 14-play drive that lasted almost eight minutes and resulted in a McClendon 1-yard touchdown run with 3:32 left in the first half.

Eagleville made it to their own 44-yard line before time ran out and both teams went to their respective locker rooms with the Rockets in front 21-0.

Things did not change to begin the second half as Eagleville went three-and-out.

Forrest put together a five-minute drive that was spoiled by a couple of untimely penalties and they had to punt the ball away 5:08 left in the third quarter.

The Eagles had no answer for the Forrest defense and had to punt gain late in the third quarter and the Rockets took over and drove to the Eagleville 26-yard line where they faced a fourth-and-5 as time ran out in the stanza.

On the first play of the fourth quarter, an incomplete pass gave the ball back to Eagleville on downs and they finally got some offense going when Dylan Pratt hauled in a 63-yard touchdown pass from Marcus Collins on the third play of the ensuing drive.

Jackson Watson kicked the PAT, cutting the Forrest lead to 21-7 with 10:22 remaining in the game.

Eagleville thought they had some home field momentum but they were wrong as the Rockets shrugged off the score and mounted a backbreaking drive that put the game away.

McClendon busted a first down run for six yards and Sweeney moved the chains on a run to the Eagleville 40-yard line.

Kirby found Spencer McCown for a 14-yard pickup and McClendon busted a run inside the 10-yard line to the seven.

Sweeney carried several Eagleville tacklers to the two-yard line where McClendon took a handoff and broke outside for a touchdown.

Long’s PAT boot was true and Forrest was in control for good at 28-7 with 6:33 left in the contest.

Eagleville tried to get a late score, but they were denied when the Rockets stopped them cold on a fourth-and-11 play at the 44-yard line with 1:15 remaining in the rivalry game.

Forrest went in to victory formation to seal the 21-point win over the Eagles after losing the last two games by one point.

“That first region win is always big to get us some momentum, we have to continue playing hard and go win the region and we are one step closer now,” Stephenson said. “The boys are playing hard, they are doing a great job coming to work every day, and it’s all on the boys.”

The Rockets (3-0, 1-0) travel to Moore County (2-1, 0-1) for a non-region contest on Friday night with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m. at Lynchburg.

Forrest has won four straight over the Raiders, who lost at home to Cornersville last week 10-7 on a last second field goal.

Forrest 14 7 0 7-28

Eagleville 0 0 0 7-7

Scoring

First Quarter

Forrest-Cole Villazon 51-yard run, Zoe Long PAT, 7:44.

Forrest-Joel Burton 41-yard pass from Max Kirby, Zoe Long PAT, 1:19.

Second Quarter

Forrest-Nick McClendon 1-yard run, Zoe Long PAT, 3:32.

Fourth Quarter

Eagleville-Dylan Pratt 63-yard pass from Marcus Collins, Jackson Watson PAT, 10:22.

Forrest-Nick McClendon 2-yard run, Zoe Long PAT, 6:37.

Total Offense: Forrest 387, Eagleville 182.

Rushing: Forrest 332, Eagleville 56.

Passing: Forrest 55, Eagleville 126.

First Downs: Forrest 15, Eagleville 12.

Time of Possession: Forrest 33:00, Eagleville 15:00.

Turnovers: Forrest 0, Eagleville 0.

Penalties: Forrest 7-60, Eagleville 4-30.

Forrest Offense

Rushing: Nick McClendon 18-115-2TD, Blaize Sweeney 6-98, Cole Villazon 9-96-TD, Aiden Freeman 5-16, Max Kirby 3-7.

Passing: Max Kirby 2-6-55-TD.

Receiving: Joel Burton 1-41-TD, Spencer McCown 1-14.

Kicking

PAT: Zoe Long 4-4.

Defense

Tackles: Blaize Sweeney 9, Tate Garvin 6, Nick McClendon 6 (2 SACKS), Max Kirby 4, Cole Villazon 4 (SACK), Joel Burton 3 (SACK), Kody Patin 3, Layne Bowman 2, Sammy Williams 2.