The Craig County football team will open the Virginia High School League playoffs this Friday night with a rematch of a Pioneer District game against Bath County. The Rockets will host the Chargers at 7 pm at Mitchell Field.
Craig beat the Chargers in Hot Springs on October 24, 28-0, in a regular season meeting. This week the Rockets will get a home game as the number two seed in Region 1C and Bath is the seventh seed. Craig expected to be the top seed after finishing the regular season 9-1 but when all the numbers were crunched Giles came out on top and will host eighth seeded Auburn Friday.
“We thought we would be the number one seed but we ended up tied and Giles had the tie-breaker over us as they beat Narrows and we lost to them,” said Craig County coach Jimmy Fisher. “The points committee was having some difficulties getting things figured out. We are just anxious for Friday to get here, and in the end if you want to win the region you have to beat everyone anyway.”
This is just the second playoff appearance for the Rockets in the past 12 years and the fifth time in the history of New Castle and Craig County High Schools. The Rockets have never won a playoff game, and that’s been a goal of the team all season, to get to the playoffs and win some games.
Other first round playoff games in Region 1C find sixth seeded Parry McCluer at third seeded Grayson County and fourth seeded Narrows at home against fifth seed George Wythe.
Craig is coming off a 36-0 win over Meadow Bridge High in West Virginia last Friday. It was the fifth shutout in 10 regular season games for the Rockets’ defense and a big lift to the team after losing to Narrows the week prior for Craig’s first loss of the season.
“We put the Narrows loss behind us,” said Fisher. “We had a really good week of practice. You can’t cry over the proverbial spilled milk and we can’t get that one back, have to move forward. We emphasized getting better and back to how we had played earlier in the year. We got back to the basics and worked our go-to plays very hard this week. We repped some packages for the future but we mainly concentrated on the plays we run the best. We knew it was going to rain and wanted to keep it simple. We worked special teams a bunch.”
Fisher was correct in assuming the weather would be bad at Meadow Bridge. The rain started about 6:30 pm and it rained steadily throughout the game. However, it didn’t affect the determination of the Rockets to get back on track.
“The kids were laser focused on winning this game,” said Fisher. “We knew it was going to rain, and we knew Meadow Bridge would play extremely hard. They were already in the playoffs but a win would give them a home game, it was Senior Night, and they wanted revenge from last year’s game. We ran our base plays and executed well.”
Playing without standout tailback and defender Carter Calfee, who is recovering from an injured ankle, the Rockets relied on the legs of Noah Paxton and Jerry Smith. Paxton had a huge game with 29 carries for 322 yards, four touchdown runs and three two-point conversions. Smith made some electric runs and had 19 carries for 115 yards and one touchdown.
“Noah was an absolute beast Friday,” said Fisher. “He was running kids over. It was a lot of fun to watch.”
The Rockets led 30-0 at the half and Paxton had scored all 30 points. He also led the Rockets on defense with 11 tackles, two sacks and three tackles for losses.
“The defense was lights out,” said Fisher. “They were motivated, after the Narrows game to redeem themselves.”
Senior linebacker Tristan Dooley had eight tackles and a tackle for loss, sophomore Dreydin Smith filled in for Calfee on defense and had seven tackles and a sack.
“Dreydin played really well,” said Fisher. “Tough, hard-nosed football player. We are very proud of his effort.”
Junior safety Caleb Cregger had six tackles and picked up his eighth interception of the season.
“Caleb has been a great addition,” said Fisher of the first year Rocket. “Eight interceptions is a lot, probably a school record. I don’t remember anyone else recording that many picks.”
Junior linebacker Marcus Donithan had five tackles and junior defensive end Peyton Fields had five tackles and two tackles for losses.
The nine wins is a school record. Craig had only won as many as eight games in a season once before, in 1984 when it was still New Castle High School and Fisher was a player on the team. It was Fisher’s 20th win in his five years as coach and only one other Craig coach has more wins with the program. Mark McPherson won 31 games in 10 seasons from 2004 to 2013.
The team has had great support all season, and a big crowd is expected this Friday night for the playoff game with Bath. The Rockets had a large following in West Virginia last week.
“We are very appreciative for the crowd that braved the trip knowing it was going to rain the entire game,” said Fisher. “It looked like we had just as many fans as Meadow Bridge. They were loud and energetic and kept us fired up.”
