The Craig County football team was no match for a bigger, stronger and more numerous Narrows squad Friday night, but the Rockets did manage to get some punches in before losing, 54-20, in New Castle.
Craig took a brief 6-0 lead when the Rockets scored on their very first offensive play. Starting at their own 20, quarterback Dalton McPherson hit speedy Ben Deplazes on a slant pattern over the middle. Ben found some open space and he was off to the races, sprinting for an 80 yard touchdown reception.
Heavily favored Narrows came back with a vengeance, scoring 34 unanswered points. However, Craig put another six on the board when McPherson hit Deplazes with a 46 yard yard hookup late in the quarter and it was 34-12 after just 12 minutes of play.
“We scored twice against their first string defense,” said Craig coach Mark Harrison. “I was real pleased with that. We hit two nice pass plays. We weren’t going to run against them, they were just too big and strong.”
Narrows led 54-12 by the half and called off the dogs. Craig scored a fourth period TD on a three yard run by McPherson to account for the final score. The Rockets have now scored 86 points on the season after scoring just 20 all of last year.
“We have a lot of freshmen and sophomores on this team, and we’re down to 14 boys,” said Harrison. “We’ll be better. It’s going to take some time, but there’s no quit in these boys.”
Henderson finished with 107 yards rushing in eight attempts against Narrows while McPherson had 92 yards on 10 carries. Dalton also passes for over 100 yards and scored a two-point conversion.
On defense Deplazes led the team with 13 tackles, including five unassisted. Dakota Henderson had nine tackles and Kyle Sloss, Dalton Henderson and McPherson had six each, and two of McPherson’s were behind the line. Matt Huffman had five tackles. Sloss had four punts for an average of 34 yards per punt.
Now 0-8, the Rockets will have their work cut out for them again this Friday as they take on a strong Covington team in Covington. The Cougars are 5-3 and coming off a 52-6 win over Eastern Montgomery.
Craig County’s middle school team will conclude their season on Thursday. The Rockets will play at 5 pm at North Cross in Roanoke County.
CORRECTION
In last week’s edition Ben Deplazes was credited with 107 rushing yards, and that should have been credited to Dakota Henderson, who also threw both touchdown passes.
