The Forrest Rockets celebrated homecoming in a big way Friday, running all over Huntland 42-3 at "The Rock" in Chapel Hill.

"It's always good to get that homecoming win," said Forrest head coach Brian Coleman. "We had a good week of practice, we built from that loss last week, and we played hard all night and started quick like we wanted them to."

Unforgettable

Senior Tyler McClendon had a big day and night, crowning Homecoming Queen Sydney Strasser prior to the game before putting the crown on the gridiron contest with a crowd-pleasing, 13-yard interception return for a touchdown that instituted the mercy rule, early in the fourth quarter.

The Rockets (4-3, 2-1) had just one turnover on offense, while the raucous Forrest defense took the ball away from the Hornets three times.

Blake Leonard had an interception that killed a late Hornets' scoring threat and Logan Hollingsworth had a fumble recovery in the first quarter that stopped a potential Huntland (2-4, 0-2) drive near midfield.

Rocket stats

Forrest rushed for 277 yards in the contest with seniors Jacob Daughrity (8 carries,108 yards, 2 TDs) and Tyler McClendon (10 carries,94 yards, 1 TD) leading the ground attack.

Zach McClendon added 54 yards on six carries and scored twice, while Brandon Anderson ran for 11 yards on a pair of carries, Thaddeus Reyes had 8 yards on one touch, and Alex Roheiler rushed for a deuce.

Reyes was 5-11 through the air for 55 yards and David Andrews attempted two passes in the contest for nine yards.

Daughrity (8 yards) and Clay Watson (24 yards) had two pass receptions apiece and Nolan Ferris hauled in one ball for 14 yards.

No waiting

The Rockets held Huntland in check on the first series of the game before scoring on their first touch with the big play coming from Zach McClendon via a 35 yard scamper to the Huntland three-yard line where Daughrity finished the job with a TD run.

Huntland would go on to have three straight three-and-outs before the Rockets scored again on a crazy play when Zach McClendon grabbed a ball coming loose from Roheiler near the goal line and took it in for the touchdown.

Chris Haggard added his second successful PAT kick of the game and the Rockets led 14-0 with 11:12 remaining in the first half.

Taking advantage

Hollingsworth would come up with his fumble recovery moments later and the Rockets made the Hornets pay for the error, turning the turnover into seven points as Daughrity capped off a short Forrest drive with a 15-yard touchdown jaunt, making it 21-zip after another Haggard PAT boot.

After stopping the Hornets on downs inside their own 15-yard line, the Rockets drove the rock to the Huntland 30-yard where Zach McClendon finished the job, racing to the end zone for a touchdown.

Haggard added the extra point to make it a 28-0 ballgame with 40.3 ticks remaining in the first half.

The Forrest defense relaxed a bit after the touchdown and Huntland's offense was able to move to the Rockets' 28-yard line where Austin Scott booted a 38-yard field goal as the first half ended with the home squad leading, 28-3.

No letup

The was no relaxing to begin half number two as the Rockets took the kickoff and ran right at the Huntland defense.

The Hornets tried to hold the Rockets on a fourth down snap, but a Zach McClendon burst moved the chains and two plays later, big brother T-Mac found pay dirt to make it a 35-3 ballgame.

Huntland put together their best drive of the game after the Forrest TD, driving the ball 66 yards to Forrest 19-yard line where Leonard picked off an Evan Ray pass with 1:15 remaining in the third quarter.

The Rockets' offense would not capitalize on the Leonard interception, punting the ball away, but on the next Huntland snap, T-Mac came up with the pick-six to put the game on ice for the Rockets.

Region games

Forrest travels to Unionville on Friday to take on a Community (1-5, 0-2) squad that has not beaten the Rockets in all six tries since the inception of the Vikings' football program.

After the Community match-up, the Rockets have a bye week before making road trips to MTCS and Fayetteville City to end the regular season.

"The next three are big region games and if we want a home playoff game, we are going to have to win those next three," said Coleman. "It's going to be a struggle, but these kids want that and we are going to be ready."