The Craig County Rockets can clinch the Pioneer District football championship with a win at Narrows High this Friday night. Game time is 7 p.m. at Ragsdale Field.
“As big as it gets,” said Craig coach Jimmy Fisher. “Winning would make us the district champions.”
The Rockets go to Narrows with a 3-0 district record and this is their last Pioneer game. Narrows and Parry McCluer are both 1-1 in the district but Craig has already beaten Parry McCluer and Parry McCluer has beaten Narrows. If Narrows can win this Friday a three-way tie for the championship is possible, but that’s not what Fisher has in mind.
This has been a big, and often heated, rivalry. Craig was 8-0 last year when they hosted Narrows and the Green Wave spoiled the Rockets’ dream of an undefeated regular season with a 42-21 win.
The Wave has won the last nine meetings between the two and four of those games have been shutouts. Narrows holds a 20-3 edge in the all-time series and most of the games have been very physical affairs. The Green Wave is just 3-5 but beating Craig would make their season, and offer a chance to tie for the district championship if they can beat Bath County next week.
“We will get Narrows’ best effort of the season,” said Fisher. “We have to be ready for the emotional start and settle in and play sound fundamental football.”
The Rockets are coming off a 21-7 win over Bath County in last Friday’s Homecoming game in New Castle. It was the first time this season Craig was held to fewer than 40 points but the defense pulled them through.
“The defense played great, led by Blake Kendall who was all over the field,” said Fisher.
Kendall led the Rockets with 13 tackles, of which three were for losses. He also had a pair of sacks.
Noah Paxton had four and a half tackles and an interception. Marcus Donithan had four tackles while Robbie Eakin and Bradyn Dunbar had three each. Carter Price had two and a half and Wyatt Huffman and Dreydin Smith each had two tackles in the team effort.
On offense Paxton went over 1,000 yards for the season. He now has 1,025 yards on 102 carries, an average of just over 10 yards per attempt. He has 20 touchdowns and seven two-point conversions.
With the win the Rockets retained the top spot in the VHSL Region 1C rankings. At 7-0 Craig has a 21.43 point rating to 21.0 for second place Grayson County, which is 6-2. Next are Parry McCluer and Auburn, who are also 6-2.
If the playoffs started tomorrow Craig would host eighth ranked Giles, and if the Rockets can maintain their top seed they would be home for as long as they survived in the three week region tournament. That could change if Narrows would pull an upset tomorrow, and that’s another reason this game is so important.
“Narrows is a huge game,” said Fisher.
