Rockwood hands Oakdale first loss, 48-0

Sept. 26, 2014 @ Oakdale

Credit ROBBY O’DANIEL Morgan County News

The buzz around the Oakdale high school football team had reached a fever pitch by Friday as the undefeated Eagles took on Rockwood in what was billed as the biggest game in years at Hollis Eble Field.

Parking was scarce at Oakdale School. The stands were packed. The crowd was loud. The excitement in the air prior to kickoff was palpable. But Oakdale could not stop Rockwood. The Tigers won 48-0, and Oakdale was no longer undefeated. Rockwood had entered Friday’s contest reeling after dropping two straight games after a 3-0 start.

“I thought we came out and played well. I really do,” John Webb, Rockwood head football coach, said. “I give a lot of credit to Oakdale. They’ve got a good football team. We had a rough week coming off, basically the last five quarters that we played, we didn’t play very well. This week we practiced hard. We had to change some attitudes, and they bought in this week and we played well tonight.”

“It was a rough night for the Eagles, we could get anything going offensively,” Oakdale Head Coach J.R. Voyles added. “We were in position a couple of times defensively to get some stops early and when you let big plays happen, it kind of got into a snowball effect and got away from us,”

About midway through the first quarter, Rockwood got its first score via a Jason Gaus 5-yard TD rush. It was a drive that started on the Oakdale 39, as Rockwood was winning the battle of field position.

Gaus would end the next two Rockwood drives with scores. He ran it in from 2 yards out and 3 yards out respectively for the scores. Successful PATs from Trey Treadway and Johnny Turner after the first three touchdowns made it 21-0 Rockwood with 10:34 left in the second quarter.

A blocked punt by Nathan Briley at the Eagle 11 helped set up Gaus’ third TD of the day.

Oakdale had its best field position thus far in the game, starting at the Rockwood 49 during a drive in the second quarter. But Oakdale struggled to move the ball in the game, and on a fourth-and-two play at the Rockwood 41, Oakdale came up short, and it was a turnover on downs.

The very next play was a 59-yard pass play from Rockwood’s Will Warner to Austin Cooper for a TD. The PAT was no good, leaving the score 27-0 Rockwood.

On the ensuing drive, Oakdale QB Austin Helton connected with Christian Cofer on a 12-yard pass play, but the drive stalled and another Oakdale punt resulted.

Rockwood answered with its longest scoring drive of the first half, marching 66 yards in eight plays with Warner scoring on a 1-yard sneak. The PAT made it 34-0 Rockwood.

In the last drive of the half, Oakdale took it into Rockwood territory. Helton connected with Austin Lowe for 25 yards to the 50 on a key third-and-11. Then on the next play, Helton found Cofer for 14 more yards to the Rockwood 36.

But then Rockwood’s Logan Miller sacked Helton back at the Rockwood 45, with just 22.2 seconds left in the half. An incompletion and another sack – this time by Dallas Strader – ended the half.

“Our defense played great and flew around all night,” Webb said. “We sit back a little last week and decided we wanted to go get them this week and the guys really got after it.”

In the second half, Gaus notched his third TD of the day with a 1-yard run to cap off an 8-play, 74-yard drive that made the score 41-0. Gaus and Long set up the score with runs of 27 and 20 yards.

After an Oakdale turnover on downs, Rockwood’s Lucas McDermott got into the end zone from 3 yards for a score. The PAT made it 48-0 Rockwood. Oakdale stopped Rockwood on Rockwood’s final offensive possession, getting a turnover on downs at the Oakdale 18.

Gaus had 82 yards rushing on 12 carries with four rushing TDs. Long had 15 carries for 107 yards rushing along with five catches with three catches for 52 yards. Warner went 6-of-6 passing for 125 yards and one TD. Rockwood had six sacks on the day, including five in the first half.

Rockwood (4-2) plays at Greenback (4-1) in a key District 3-A game. “It’s a big test for us,” Webb said. “We’ve got to play really well and give good effort like we did tonight.”

Scoring

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Individual Statistics

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