The results are in for the first “Backwoods Brawl” and the Craig County Rockets left the field with the belt. Craig County defeated Bland County, 53-0, in the high school football season opener for both at New Castle’s Mitchell Field last Friday.
It was a beautiful night for a high school football game and the Rockets made it a big night. Along with the game there was a big tailgate party, a big crowd an enthusiastic student section and a reunion for the 1983 and ’84 teams coach by Charlie Darling. The surprise firing of a live Rocket, courtesy of Adrien and Lynn Schneiderhan Drouault, got the home crowd pumped before the first hit was made and the performance of the hometown Rockets kept them pumped throughout the game.
Just about everything went right from the get-go for the home team as Craig won the toss and elected to receive. Three “Rocket” sweeps later, junior running back Carter Calfee was standing in the end zone for the first points of the season.
“We love the Rocket Sweep because it really stretches the defense and gets players out of the box to open up the inside run game,” said coach Jim Fisher. “We’ve put a ton of time into running this sweep correctly.”
Calfee’s outside runs set up the inside running of senior Josh Craft. Calfee scored the first touchdown on a 20 yard run and Craft scored the next two on runs of eight and 15 yards and the Rockets led 21-0 after the first quarter with senior kicker Isaac Lucas making all three PAT attempts.
The second quarter went very much like the first with stifling defense and big plays from the offense.
“It looked like the game was going to get out of hand and I thought that if we were going to throw the ball, we needed to do it in the first half,” said Fisher. “We’ve worked insanely hard on having a passing game and I wanted the receivers and quarterback to have an opportunity in that phase of the game. We threw the ball pretty extensively in the second quarter. Senior quarterback Jaycob Wolfe has been throwing the ball really well all summer.”
Wolfe threw three second quarter touchdown passes with junior wide receiver Tristan Dooley hauling in the first touchdown pass of the season with an eight yard catch and run. Lucas, who also plays tight end, caught a nine yard touchdown pass and Calfee caught a three yard touchdown pass. Lucas converted on two of the three second quarter PAT attempts and the Rockets took a commanding 41-0 halftime lead.
The third quarter went like the first two but much faster. If a team has a 35 point lead or more any time in the second haf the clock runs continuously. The defense got a three-and-out and the offense went down and scored again with a Calfee four yard run as the Rockets led 47-0 after three quarters.
The fourth quarter was mainly played by both teams’ second strings.
“A few mistakes but, all in all, the second string played very well too,” said Fisher.
Junior running back Isaiah Nichols had some electric runs and sophomore running back Noah Paxton had some punishing runs as well. Freshman quarterback Bradyn Dunbar had a four yard touchdown run on a broken play with seconds left in the game to account for the final score of 53-0, and the Rockets didn’t attempt the extra point.
“I heard after the game, and over the weekend, that we shouldn’t have scored the last touchdown and I do understand that viewpoint,” said Fisher. “However, these second stringers have worked their tails off since last December, getting up early to be at the school by 6:30 am three times a week for weightlifting, showing up all summer for lifting and open field, 7 on 7’s, etc. They worked extremely hard and I am not going to reward all that hard work by telling them to take a knee.
“I have never had a problem with another team’s second team scoring if they didn’t pass or run trick plays. We want all of our guys competing and fighting for every inch of grass. If we are in a similar situation down the road, I am going to do the same thing. My second string scoring on an opponents’ second string with simple runs is not running up the score, in my opinion.”
Fisher was excited about the performance of the defense, as the defense has been lights out through both scrimmages and the Bland game. Craig gave up only 23 total yards Friday night and zero pass completions.
Calfee led the defense with 7.5 tackles, Craft had 5.5 tackles, sophomore defensive end Carter Price had 5, Dooley had 5, Paxton had 5 and junior nose guard Doug Hutchison also had 5. Lucas added 4 tackles and senior defensive tackle Joseph “Big Jesus” Lee had 3.5.
“We were in Bland’s backfield a lot, racking up a bunch of tackles for loss,” said Fisher.
Calfee, Dooley and Paxton each had 2 tackles for losses and Craft, Lucas, and freshman linebacker Blake Kendall each added one
“I turned the defense over to Coach (Jayke) Dowdy last season,” said Fisher. “Last year he cut his teeth and got his feet wet. This year he has been a man on a mission and has done an outstanding job with the guys. The kids really respect him and will run through a brick wall for him.
“I do not concern myself at all with that side of the ball except for coaching the defensive line. It’s totally his thing. He does ask my opinion on things but we almost always agree anyway. We compliment each other very well. I have given him the two things I love the most, the defense and the weight room, and he has done a tremendous job with both. I do the offense, special teams, the fundraising and the business and public side of things. Every decision I make, I try to include him.”
The offense was hitting on all cylinders against the Bears. The Rockets had over 500 yards of total offense Friday. Calfee led the team in rushing with 128 yards on 12 carries and two touchdowns and he also caught a pass for a third touchdown. Craft had 116 yards on 13 carries and two touchdowns and caught one pass for 23 yards. Wolfe was 10 of 15 passing for 159 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions while Dooley led the receiving corps with four receptions.
“Offensively, we are multi-dimensional and have a ton of playmakers,” said Fisher. “Moving forward, we hope to be a tough match-up for a lot of teams on our schedule.”
The Rockets were scheduled to play at Auburn this week but Auburn could not field a team so Craig is off this week. Fisher has not decided whether to find another opponent during the season or just take the forfeit win.
Craig’s next game is September 13 at Montcalm, a game that was moved up a week so the Rockets wouldn’t be off for two weeks in a row after missing out on the Auburn game.
