Last week ended with sorrow and pain, but the new week began with hope and love and a never seen before community outreach tsunami in support for our fallen Rocket Micah McClendon, who was honored by a classy Loretto football program Friday night as they painted his blue #11 on both sidelines of the field and at each 11-yard line and had some heartfelt words for the Forrest sophomore before the opening kickoff.

McClendon was with us Friday, in spirit and on the field as Brenton Burchell wore the #11 jersey to honor his injured classmate.

“Brenton asked the McClendon family if he could wear Micah’s number to honor him,” Forrest coach Eli Stephenson said. “Brenton had a heck of a game, he played every play for Micah on Friday night.”

I talked about Micah being at Loretto in spirit earlier and it was evident as the Rockets remarkably and fatefully won by 11 points, 18-7 to remain undefeated in Region 5-AA play.

“The boys are a resilient bunch of kids, they came out and played hard for Micah and it showed,” Stephenson said. “They played hard from the first whistle to the last whistle and we were able to have it come out in our favor, our boys willed that win for us tonight.”

“One thing we were preaching to the kids this week was we knew Micah wanted us to keep moving on and we came out played for him and that’s what we did all week, we knew if he could be out there he would.”

The Rockets’ cylinders were firing perfectly in all three phases of the game Friday as they pitched a shutout on defense, cranked up the running game and had some big pass plays on offense, and even with giving up the lone score on a Loretto kickoff return, the special teams played lights out.

The Forrest defense was in shutdown mode the entire contest as the Mustangs never moved the ball inside the Forrest 25-yard line as they gave up just eight first downs, forced Loretto to punt five times, and stopped them on downs late in the first half.

“Our defense played well all night long, I don’t know if they even sniffed the ‘20’,” Stephenson said. “They were running and flying to the ball.”

The Rockets also came up with four huge turnovers in the contest with the game changer coming at the end of the first half when senior standout linebacker Noah Hill busted through the Mustangs’ defense of their own 1-yard line and tackled the quarterback in the end zone for a safety, giving the Rockets an 8-0 lead and all the momentum headed to the locker room at halftime.

The Forrest offense was stopped on downs by the Mustangs on their initial possession, but the second time the Rockets got the ball they used the last two and a half minutes of the first quarter to move to their own 46-yard line where they faced a third-and-four play to open the second period.

Rocket quarterback Max Kirby found fellow senior Joseph Whitaker on a swing pass for a first down and then Whitaker busted through the Mustangs’ defensive line for another first down.

Two plays later, Kirby found McCalister Wilson streaking down the Forrest sideline and he floated a perfect pass that Wilson caught with the defender all over him for a touchdown.

The Rockets punted the next three times they got the ball in the first half, but every time, Forrest punter Christian Hammond got better as he made the Mustangs start from their own 43, 26, and a boomer that stopped at the 1-yard line, setting up Hills safety.

“Our punter flipped the field for us, he got the ball down to the one and we came out and sent in a little blitz and were able to hit them in the backfield and got a safety,” Stephenson said. “That was huge momentum going in to the half.”

The Forrest offense looked to be stalled to start the second half, facing a third-and-12 at the Loretto 32-yard line when Burchell came up with a huge 44-yard run down to the Mustangs’ 25.

Kirby then handed off to Whitaker, who broke to the outside and busted through several Loretto tacklers on his way to the end zone for a touchdown.

“I was determined to score for him (Micah) and for us,” Whitaker said. “It felt good to play our hearts out on the field for him and to know that we came out here and played for him, it was just an overall good night for us and for him.”

“It was an emotional wreck for us all week, we had our ups and downs but we all knew we were a family and we came together and we knew we were going to come out here tonight and win for Micah.”

Stephenson added, “When he (Whitaker) came off the field, he said that was for Micah and I knew it was, that was a heck of a run and I’m just so proud of Joseph.”

Gavin Grissom’s PAT boot was good and the Rockets led 15-0 with 10:32 remaining in the third quarter.

Unfortunately, the Rockets gave all seven points back as Loretto’s Caden Smith responded with an 88-yard kickoff return to make it 15-7.

The ensuing Loretto kickoff went out of bounds, but the Rockets could not take advantage of the good field position and were forced to punt, but Hammond came through again, pinning the Mustangs back at their own 10-yard line.

Flipping the field worked again as Hunter Pendley came up with a fumble and four plays later, Grissom kicked a 28-yard field goal right down the middle, giving the Rockets the 11-point McClendon lead at 18-7 with 5:03 remaining in the third quarter.

The Forrest defense forced another Loretto punt and they also had to punt the ball back to the Mustangs with five seconds left in the third quarter.

The Mustangs went nowhere and punted the ball to the Rockets, who burned 6:49 off the clock in the run game before turning the ball over on downs, but Loretto’s night was done when Kirby came up with an interception with just over two minutes to play.

“Micah was in the house,” Stephenson said. “We were happy to get that win for him.”

The Rockets (3-2, 2-0) ran out the remaining time on the clock for the 11-point win and make a return trip south down Route 43 when they travel to Lawrenceburg to take on the Wildcats (3-2, 1-1) at 7 p.m. on Friday night.

“Just like all season, we got to work on us getting better individually and as a team,” Stephenson said.

Forrest beat Lawrence County 37-7 at the Murrey E. Holton Memorial Field in Chapel Hill last year in the first of the home and away series with the Wildcats, who lost 48-19 at home last week versus Nolensville.

Forrest 0 8 10 0-18

Loretto 0 0 7 0-7

Scoring Plays

Second Quarter

Forrest-McCalister Wilson 25-yard pass from Max Kirby (Kick failed), 10:06.

Forrest-Noah Hill safety, 0.05.

Third Quarter

Forrest-Joseph Whitaker 25-yard run (Gavin Grissom PAT), 10:32.

Loretto-Caden Smith 88-yard kickoff return (Patton Simbeck PAT), 10:16

Forrest-Gavin Grissom 28-yard field goal, 5:03.

Total Offense: Forrest 267, Loretto 166.

Rushing: Forrest 220, Loretto 91.

Passing: Forrest 47, Loretto 75.

First Downs: Forrest 10, Loretto 8.

Time of Possession: Forrest 32:15, Loretto 15:45.

Turnovers: Forrest 0, Loretto 4.

Penalties: Forrest 8-75, Loretto 8-72.

Forrest Offense

Rushing: Brenton Burchell 12-78, Tayton Swift 13-37, Chris Davis 9-35, Joseph Whitaker 7-21-TD, Max Kirby 3-2.

Passing: Max Kirby 5-10-47-TD-0 INT.

Receiving: McCalister Wilson 1-25-TD, Joseph Whitaker 2-9, Chris Davis 1-12, Christian Hammond 1-1.

Kicking

PAT: Gavin Grissom 1-2.

Field Goals: Gavin Grissom 1-1-28.

Defense

Tackles: Aiden Freeman 4 (FUM REC), Brenton Burchell 3, Noah Hill 3 (SACK, Safety), Braden Jones 3, Tayton Swift 3, Max Kirby 3 (INT), Boston Follis 2, Layne Strasser 2 (SACK), Chris Davis 1, Christian Hammond 1, Hunter Pendley (FUM REC).