Undefeated Rockets take care of business on Senior Night

Anthony S. Puca Sports Editor
Posted 10/23/19

An injury riddled Forrest Rockets squad took the field versus Community Friday night, but it didn’t matter as Chapel Hill came away with an impressive 28-0 shutout win on Senior Night to remain unbeaten on the season.

“It’s an awesome win, these seniors work hard and they are a great group, so I’m glad we got this win,” Forrest coach Eli Stephenson said. “We hit some big plays early on and then were able to run the clock.”

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Undefeated Rockets take care of business on Senior Night

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An injury riddled Forrest Rockets squad took the field versus Community Friday night, but it didn’t matter as Chapel Hill came away with an impressive 28-0 shutout win on Senior Night to remain unbeaten on the season.

“It’s an awesome win, these seniors work hard and they are a great group, so I’m glad we got this win,” Forrest coach Eli Stephenson said. “We hit some big plays early on and then were able to run the clock.”

The Rockets came up with a huge defensive effort as they forced three turnovers in the game with two leading to touchdowns, including a blocked punt by Cole Villazon that was scooped up for a score by Cody Sisk on the first drive of the game.

“We have been working on that all week, that was a huge momentum booster for us,” Villazon said. “Their punter was only 10 yards back and with the athletes that we have we knew we were going to get back there and get it.”

Forrest held the Vikings again on their next offensive series and needed just one play to score as Villazon took a first-down handoff, broke through the line and outraced the Community defense 50 yards for a touchdown to make it a 14-0 contest with seven minutes remaining in the first quarter.

“That’s all my O-Line, that make it easy on me,” Villazon said.

Community put together some offense in its third series, driving to midfield before disaster struck again when they coughed the ball up and Joseph Whitaker recovered at the Rockets’ 49-yard line.

Forrest struck again in lightning fashion when junior quarterback Max Kirby took the first-down snap and found Charlie Edmonson behind the Community defense for a touchdown.

The first quarter ended with Community having the ball and the Vikings turned the ball over on downs deep in Forrest territory at the 18-yard line with 9:37 remaining in the second quarter.

Blaize Sweeney ran for five yards on first down and 15 more yards were tacked on the back end of the run due to a Community personal foul before Villazon went to the house from 63 yards out.

Zoe Long booted her fourth consecutive point after touchdown to make it a 28-0 contest with 8:13 remaining in the first half.

The Forrest defense forced a Community punt and the Rockets went three-and-out after the Vikings’ kick.

Unionville put together another nice offensive drive, moving to the Forrest 17-yard where a fourth down pass fell incomplete and the Rockets took over to end the first half.

Community got a break on the first series of the second half when a Kirby pass was deflected and intercepted by Braylen Silva at the Vikings’ 16-yard line.

Unionville put together a 12-play drive that lasted almost eight minutes, but the bend but don’t break Forrest defense halted Community when Kirby came up with a fourth-down tackle to give the ball back to the Rockets with 2:45 remaining in the third quarter.

Forrest went into the pound and ground mode as they burned up the rest of the third quarter and nearly five minutes of the fourth before being stopped on downs by the Vikings at the Community 25-yard line with 7:52 remaining in the contest.

The Vikings ran six plays before being stopped on downs again and the Rockets’ ensuing offensive series ended with a punt with 1:07 left in the game.

Two snaps later, McAllister Wilson fell on a Community fumble and the Rockets went into victory formation to cap the win.

“That was great, we needed to get what had to be done, we knew what was at stake with a first round playoff game, we haven’t done that since my freshman year and that was what we have been hunting, ever since,” Blaize Sweeney said. “We tried to get on them, break them down early and get our backups in to rest up for Cascade and Lewis County.”

Forrest rushed for 289 yards in the contest with Villazon leading the way with 117 yards on just three carries for a gaudy 39 yards per carry average.

Tayton Swift had eight touches for 68 yards, Aiden Freeman toted the rock four times for 27 yards, Blaize Sweeney had three touches for 13 yards, while Hunter Pendley had two for six, Whitaker three for five, and Micah McClendon had one carry for two yards.

“Our reserves had an awesome game tonight, Tayton Swift and Freeman came in and ran the ball hard,” Stephenson said. “Our older guys did great, Blaize Sweeney did a great job blocking and on defense.”

“And Joel Burton had to move to strong safety tonight and he came in and did an awesome job, we have a tough group of kids that just love to play football.”

The number-five ranked Rockets (8-0, 4-0) travel to Cascade (2-6) this week for a non-region battle versus their longtime archrival Campions before returning to Murrey E. Holton Memorial Field next week for a showdown with defending Region 5-AA champ Lewis County (6-1, 3-1).

“Cascade always plays us tough, they are getting better every week, so we have to go over there and play a clean game,” Stephenson said.

The winner of the regular season finale claims the region title and both will host a first-round playoff game on Friday November 1.

“That was one of our main goals this year was to get a home playoff game and win the region title and now we get to play Lewis County for the region championship,” Stephenson said. “We got one thing checked off and now we have to move on to the next one.”

Forrest has won five straight games versus Cascade, but has lost both meetings to Lewis County since the TSAAA realignment in 2017.

“That (Cascade) is a good rivalry game, that is what we need,” Sweeney said. “We all know what is at stake, so we want to go over there and win too.”

Community 0 0 0 0-0

Forrest 21 7 0 0-28

Scoring Plays

First Quarter

Forrest-Cody Sisk 1-yard blocked punt return, Zoe Long PAT, 9:24.

Forrest-Cole Villazon 50-yard run, Zoe Long PAT, 7:00.

Forrest-Charlie Edmonson 49-yard pass from Max Kirby, Zoe Long PAT, 2:08.

Second Quarter

Forrest-Cole Villazon 63-yard run, Zoe Long PAT, 8:13.

Total Offense: Community 235, Forrest 289.

Rushing: Community 235, Forrest 232.

Passing: Community 0, Forrest 57.

First Downs: Community 16, Forrest 10.

Penalties: Community 6-50, Forrest 5-45.

Turnovers: Community 3, Forrest 1.

Forrest Offense

Rushing: Cole Villazon 3-117-2TD, Tayton Swift 8-68, Aiden Freeman 4-27, Blaize Sweeney 3-13, Hunter Pendley 2-6, Joseph Whitaker 3-5, Micah McClendon 1-2, Joel Burton 1-(-1), Max Kirby 1-(-1), Brenton Burchell 2-(-4).

Passing: Max Kirby 2-6-57-TD-INT.

Receiving: Charlie Edmondson 1-49-TD, Joseph Whitaker 1-8.

Kicking

PAT: Zoe Long 4-4.

Defense

Tackles: Blaize Sweeney 8, Cole Villazon 8 (Blocked punt), Max Kirby 7, Layne Strasser 7, Sammy Williams 6, Micah McClendon 6, Tayton Swift 6, Aiden Freeman 5, Tate Garvin 5, Christian Hammond 5, Hunter Pendley 5, Joseph Whitaker 4 (FUM REC), Kody Patin 3, Cody Sisk 3 (Blocked Punt Return), Spencer McCown 2, McAllister Wilson (FUM REC).

Region 5-AA Standings

Forrest 8-0, 4-0

Lewis County 6-1, 3-1

Eagleville 6-2, 2-2

Summertown 5-3, 2-2

Loretto 3-5, 1-3

Community 1-7, 0-4