For the second time this season the Craig County football team has broken the school scoring record. The Rockets scored 57 points in the first half and went on to a 78-28 win over Stonewall Jackson High in Quicksburg last Friday.
The host Generals had no answers for Craig’s single wing offense. The Rockets scored 36 points in the first quarter alone and the first half took an hour and 40 minutes to play.
“They kept going three and out with incomplete passes that stopped the clock, and they couldn’t stop us on defense,” said Craig coach Jimmy Fisher. “That was the longest first quarter I’ve ever been involved in, and with a 20 minute halftime it was nine o’clock before we started the second half.”
Dreydin Smith opened the game with a 37-yard touchdown run, then Noah Paxton scored twice, once from one yard out and once from 41 yards. The Generals scored their only touchdown against Craig’s first defense on a 92 yard pass play to cut the lead to 21-6, but the Rockets answered with a five yard TD run by Brayden Dunbar and a 44-yard gallop by Paxton and it was 36-6 after the first quarter.
Craig added three more scores before the half. Robbie Eakin ran one in from 17 yards out, Marcus Donithan scored on a four-yard run and Paxton scored his fourth TD of the half to give Craig a 57-6 lead at intermission.
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Paxton finished with 134 yards rushing on just eight carries with four touchdowns. Eakin had nine carries for 127 yards and three TDs. Dylan Sarver had 70 yards on just three carries and had a touchdown. Also scoring for the Rockets were Dreyden Smith, Dunbar and Donithan as they combined for 89 yards on eight carries.
The 78 points breaks the school record the Rockets set back on Sept. 4 when they hung 68 on the Mitchell Field scoreboard against Bland County. The Rockets are now 4-0 and have scored 238 points, a two-point conversion away from averaging 60 points per game.
“I wasn’t trying to run up the score, we started taking the starters out in the second quarter,” said Fisher.
This week the Rockets will open their Pioneer District season with a game against Eastern Montgomery High in Elliston. The Mustangs are just 2-4 but coming off a 38-0 win over Bland so they’ll be fired up when the Rockets come to town.
“I don’t think they can stop us, but they have some good skill kids we’ll have to contend with,” said Fisher. “This is an important game because it’s a district game, and if we want to win the district we can’t lose any of them.”
The Rockets will be on the road for the fourth time in their first five games. After this week they finish up with three of four at home, including next week against Parry McCluer. The Blues and Narrows play this Friday in Buena Vista, and if Parry McCluer wins that game the following week at Craig will be especially big.
“That could easily be for the district championship,” said Fisher.
