Rockets stymie Cats

The Henry County defense shone again, despite a 21-0 loss on the road at Shelby County. Unfortunately, the Rockets defense was strong, too.

Nick Magness had 10 tackles, a fumble recovery and caused a fumble against the Shelby County Rockets.

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The Wildcats’ defense played well all night, forcing 4 fumbles and holding the Rockets’ potent offense scoreless in the first half and to just two offensive touchdowns on the night. In their previous three games, the Rockets had notched no less than 28 points.

Nick Magness had another big defensive night for the Wildcats as he accounted for 10 tackles on the night to go with a fumble recovery and one fumble caused.

Wildcat coach Jason Spencer was pleased with his entire defense. “We played good defense all night,” he said. “We had two missed assignments that accounted for their two scores. The defense played extremely well. I was extremely happy with them.”

The Wildcats’ offense, however, struggled to move the football against Shelby’s quick, athletic, blitzing defense.

“They had a good defensive scheme for us,” he said. “It was the right defense for what we try to do. They were very athletic. They sent more guys than we could account for.”

Appropriately, the first score of the night came on a defensive play with 8:50 to play in the third quarter when Shelby intercepted a Wildcat pass and returned it 35 yards for a touchdown. It was deflating for the Wildcats who had fought valiantly to keep the game scoreless.

Shelby County scored their first offensive touchdown with 6:03 left in the quarter on a 64-yard touchdown run that made it 14-0.

The Henry County defense stiffened again after that play and held Shelby County until 5:52 remained. At that point, Shelby threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to a wide open receiver for the final score of the game.

The Wildcat offense managed 69 yards on the ground, but lost ground as Shelby sacked quarterback Brock Fish for 32 yards. Fish completed 12 of 26 passes for 70 yards. The Wildcats had just 107 total yards of offense on the night.

Spencer felt that all phases of the passing game need improvement if the Wildcats want to compete with the tough teams on their schedule. “We’ve got to do a better job protecting the quarterback, getting open as far as receivers are concerned and when we do get open, throwing to the receivers,” he said. “Offensively, we have just got to get better period.”