VEEDERSBURG — Visiting Rockville fell victim to several big plays Friday night as third-ranked Fountain Central won the Class A Sectional 39 high school football championship game by a 39-0 score.
One of the big plays in particular, however, made the ease of the victory possible for the unbeaten Mustangs.
Rockville had played the Wabash River Conference champions evenly throughout the first quarter, although the Rox failed to take advantage of an interception by linebacker James Kent on the game’s first play on a bouncing snap that enabled Jake Lear and Nick Wheeler to partially block a Mustang punt.
Fountain Central’s quick-strike ability put the home team ahead midway through the second quarter. After a punt return for a touchdown by Zach Robertson was called back by a penalty, Robertson merely turned a pass from Scott Moore into an 81-yard touchdown on the next play.
But the Rox were still just one score away from tying the game as the first half wound down, and appeared to have stopped a Mustang drive when defensive back Kris Nickle picked off a pass by Moore in the end zone.
Robertson, however, was the intended receiver on the play and went after the ball as he and Nickle went to the ground.
After a few seconds, the official in the end zone signaled touchdown — because of simultaneous possession — instead of the interception that probably would have sent the Rox to their halftime locker room in relatively good shape.
Coach Herb King of the Rox calmly discussed the play with the entire officiating crew, but to no avail.
“That hurt,” King said after the game. “A couple of guys in the end zone said [the call] should have gone our way. But we didn’t fight through it very well either.”
Rockville received the second-half kickoff but did nothing with it. Another long scoring play, this an 83-yard connection from Moore to fullback Tanner Pierce, made it 21-0. And now Rockville’s patient offense, designed to keep the Mustang offense off the field, had to change.
It didn’t change for the better.
“[The Mustangs] are a very good ballclub,” King said after the game. “They have a chance to make it a long way in the tournament … and they were better than we were tonight.
“We had a couple of breakdowns when they were able to break some tackles and make big plays,” King continued. “We moved the ball pretty well early … but when we tried to run the ball [after falling behind] we just didn’t run it as well as we were supposed to, and our passing game was inept.”
Tyler Bradburn was able to move the chains on the ground for the Rox in the first half. But once the Mustangs were able to tee off on Rockville’s inexperienced passers, there were a lot of negative plays — plus three shotgun snaps that went awry. Twice Rockville gave up safeties when mishandled snaps had to be recovered by offensive players in the end zone.
Moore, in the meantime, passed for 368 yards and Robertson had over 300 all-purpose yards — 207 plus two touchdowns receiving, 60 on two carries including a touchdown, and 34 on punt returns.
The Mustangs play next week at Linton for the regional championship.
Fountain Central 39, Rockville 0
Rockville 0 0 0 0 — 0
Fountain Central 0 14 16 9 — 39
FC — Zach Robertson 81 pass from Scott Moore (A.J. Stockdale kick), 6:28 2Q
FC — Robertson 19 pass from S.Moore (Stockdale kick), 1:04 2Q
FC — Tanner Pierce 83 pass from S.Moore (Stockdale kick), 9:06 3Q
FC — safety, Rockville recovered own fumble in end zone, 5:26 3Q
FC — Robertson 48 run (Stockdale kick), 2:51 3Q
FC — Trent Spear 1 run (Stockdale kick), 6:58 4Q
FC — safety, Rockville recovered own fumble in end zone, 2:41 4Q
R FC
First downs 9 20
Rushes-yards 30-(-35) 40-147
Passing yards 86 368
Com-Att-Int 6-28-2 15-24-1
Return yards 12 42
Punts-avg. 8-34.6 5-26.8
Fumbles-lost 5-1 7-3
Penalties-yards 11-80 9-60
Individual statistics
Rushing: Rockville — Tyler Bradburn 16-64, Kris Dennison 3-6, Brad Suiters 1-1, Cody Jeffries 1-minus 2, Clint White 3-minus 15, Jordan McFall 3-minus 26, team 3-minus 63. Fountain Central — Robertson 2-60, Spear 11-51, Sam Shoaf 7-15, Brent Nelson 1-13, Michael Duane 1-2, S.Moore 13-minus 1, Eli Moore 1-minus 1, Cameron Seymour 4-minus 6.
Passing: Rockville — White 4-16-1, 53 yards; McFall 2-11-1, 33; Bradburn 0-1-0. Fountain Central — S.Moore 15-23-0, 368; Spear 0-1-1.
Receiving: Rockville — Jeffries 3-42, Drew Kelley 2-33, Bradburn 1-11. Fountain Central — Robertson 7-207, Spear 5-42, Tyler Lawson 2-36, Pierce 1-83.
Next — Fountain Central (12-0) plays at Linton next Friday. Rockville finished 8-4.
High School
Big plays hurt Rockville in sectional championship
- High School
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Sullivan stays on top of WIC for third straight year
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Vikings break long sectional drought
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PREP ROUNDUP: RP rolls past Attica
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Injury bug follows girls into postseason
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