The Forrest Rockets dug themselves an early 13-0 hole Friday night at Lindon Martin Memorial Stadium in Adamsville and just could not find a way out, falling 26-7 to the Cardinals in the second round of the TSSAA Class 2A playoffs.

"We fought for four quarters, that's all we could ask from our guys, they never gave up," said Forrest head coach Brian Coleman. "A couple of plays here or there and the outcome could have been different, but they gave their best effort."

The Rockets have come back from early deficits this season, including a 14-0 hole versus Riverside in round one, but this time, the Cardinals protected the first quarter lead by pounding the ball, running the clock, and stopping the Rockets' ground attack.

Main weapon

Adamsville running back Zak Neary did most of the most of the damage on the ground against the Rockets, rushing the rock 24 times for 165 yards and a touchdown.

"He's a very good athlete and runs the ball very, very hard," said Coleman. "We would get to him on the strong side, but he just kept cutting it back, he's a really good cut-back runner."

The Cardinals also stopped the Rockets' bread and butter ground game by holding Forrest to just 105 yards rushing in the contest.

"They were big up front and they were a penetrating defense and got us on some lost yardage plays," said Coleman. "It's hard to recover when you get second and 12 or 15, because our offense isn't built to do that, but we also dropped a couple of crucial passes that I thought could have helped us out a lot."

Rocket leader

Thaddeus Reyes had 51 yards on nine carries to lead the Rockets in rushing, while the senior quarterback completed seven out of 14 passes for 67 yards and one touchdown.

An untimely holding call ruined the Rockets' initial drive of the game and Cardinals came up with a blocked punt to start their first drive near the midfield stripe.

Six plays later, Adamsville was in the Forrest end zone, via a Jacob Wallis 15-yard end around touchdown run.

Will Linam added the extra point to put Adamsville in front 7-0 with 7:21 remaining in the first quarter.

Disaster

Reyes came up with a big first down run on Forrest's next drive before the series stalled out, forcing another Rocket punt.

Disaster struck when the punt was block again and the Cardinals took over in Rockets territory at the 49.

Seth Paul 38-yard touchdown toss to Ross Burcham capped off a short, three-play drive that made it 13-0 after Linam missed the extra point try.

Both teams did not score on their next drives, but the Rockets finally got some offense churning early in the second quarter when the marched 48 yards to the Adamsville 18-yard line where Reyes found Cage Hargrove in the corner of the end zone for a touchdown.

Quick scores

Chris Haggard booted the extra point as the Rockets trailed by seven points at 13-6 with 3:47 remaining in the first half.

On the Cardinals next offensive series, two questionable pass interference calls against the Rockets made it easy for Adamsville, who went up 19-7 with 1:01 to go in the first half after a Neary 9-yard TD run and a Linam successful extra point boot.

Forrest stopped Adamsville deep in Rockets territory to begin the second half, but the drive burned half the third quarter.

The Rockets punted after nine plays could not get them past midfield, but Adamsville went nowhere and were forced to punt for the second time in the contest.

A dropped pass on a fourth down snap stymied a Forrest comeback attempt, and on the next Adamsville series, the home team put the visitors away with a backbreaking drive that ended on a Paul 20-yard touchdown toss to Burcham with 3:11 remaining in the game.

One minute later, Wallis picked off Reyes and Adamsville ran out the clock, ending Forrest's season at 8-4.

Foundation

"This has been a great senior class with great leadership and I hate to lose them," said Coleman. "I think they have laid the foundation to something we can build on here. I am very proud of them, they have worked hard and they have showed these guys how to work and how to win."

Adamsville (9-2) travels to top-seeded Eagleville (10-1) on Friday.

Tyler McClendon was held to 21 yards on seven carries and Zach McClendon rushed for 12 yards and caught one pass for 13 yards.

Brandon Anderson finished with 8 yards rushing and caught one Reyes pass for 14 yards, Nolan Ferris had a 13-yard reception, Harmon ran for 14 yards and caught two balls for nine yards, and Hargrove had the one catch that went for a score.