The Craig County football team will be playing for a spot in the Region 1C championship game when they host Grayson County this Friday night in New Castle. The Rockets earned the right to host Friday’s game by shutting out Bath County, 27-0, in the region opener last Friday at Mitchell Field.
Craig County, the number two seed in the region, comes into the game with a record of 10-1, the best in school history. The Blue Devils are the third seed at 7-4 counting a forfeit win over Galax. They’ve won their last four in a row, including a 42-7 win over Parry McCluer in the first round of the playoffs last week.
Grayson was the Class 1 state runnerup last year, losing to Essex in the state championship game at Salem Stadium. They opened the playoffs in Independence against Craig last season and took a 42-0 win in the that game. They return several key members from that team.
“They are still the proverbial bull of the woods” said Craig County coach Jimmy Fisher. “They are the biggest school competing in Division 1. They graduated 128 kids last year and we have 149 kids in grades 9-12. I’m going to go to a brook and pick out five smooth stones. If we hustle and don’t make many mistakes, maybe we can knock off Goliath on Friday.”
The Rockets were hitting on all cylinders as they beat Bath for the second time this year, both times by shutout. Craig won 28-0 on October 24 in a Pioneer District matchup and last Friday they kept the Chargers out of the end zone again in a 27-0 win. It was an exciting night in New Castle from start to finish.
“Beautiful night in New Castle for a high school football game,” said Fisher. “Big crowd with a lot of energy. Rocket alumni Joey Mayo provided pyrotechnics, which led to an awesome entrance for the team; fireworks, smoke machines and flames out of the rocket. Joey does a lot for the program and we greatly appreciate his skillset.
“Thank you to everyone that showed up and cheered us on. We all felt that energy on the field, and it was an awesome experience for the kids.”
Senior fullback Carter Calfee, back on the field after missing the week prior with an ankle injury, scored on a 53 yard run in the first quarter and a 54 yard run in the second quarter. The teams went scoreless in the third quarter, but junior Caleb Cregger returned a punt 45 yards in the fourth quarter for a TD and senior running back Jerry Smith scored on a 42 yard run to put some icing on the cake.
“We had prepared all week to be without Carter Calfee because of an injury, then we thought we would just try him on defense,” said Fisher. “However, we lost Noah Paxton on the first or second play of defense and Carter played both ways all night. Noah hurt his shoulder and is a definite no this week. He could possibly return in three or four weeks if we are blessed to keep winning.”
Calfee led the Rockets with 139 yards on 12 carries. Jerry Smith had 105 yards on nine carries and sophomore tailback Bentley Smith had five carries for 69 yards. Bentley also completed three of four passes for 61 yards and Cregger had two catches for 57 yards.
The Rockets were led on defense by the injured Paxton’s replacement, sophomore Dreydin Smith. Dreydin made the most out of his opportunity with 11.5 tackles, two sacks, and three tackles for losses.
“Dreydin played outstanding for the second week in a row after filling in for Calfee against Meadow Bridge,” said Fisher.
Senior Tristan Dooley had 10 tackles, a sack and a tackle for loss. Junior backer Marcus Donithan had eight and a half tackles and an interception, junior defensive tackle Carter Price had eight and a half tackles, a sack and a tackle for loss, and safety Cregger had seven tackles. Jerry Smith, making his first defensive start of the season at cornerback, had seven tackles, defensive back Bentley Smith had six and junior defensive end Peyton Fields had five tackles, with two tackles for losses and a sack.
The 10 wins are not only a new school record but the victory was the first ever post-season win for the Rockets. Craig had four prior playoff games but failed to come up a winner.
The shutout was the sixth of the season, also a school record. In the 11 games thus far the Rockets have scored 440 points and given up just 90. Almost half of the points scored against Craig were in their only loss, a 42-21 loss to Narrows on Halloween Night when Calfee did not play defense due to a sprained ankle. After that loss the Rockets shut out their next two opponents.
The winner of Friday’s game will play the winner of a region semifinal game between George Wythe and Giles in Pearisburg this Friday. Top-seeded Giles opened with a 39-20 win over Auburn and Wythe eliminated Narrows, 48-19. If Craig and Wythe win this week the Rockets would host the region championship game. If Craig and Giles win the Rockets would have to go to Giles.
