On Friday, November 12, the RCHS varsity football team traveled to Lynchburg to take on the Brookville Bees. This game was round one of the post-season playoffs. The Wildcats ended their regular season as fifth seed in district rankings. Out of seven teams, this was a much lower ranking than the Wildcats preferred. 

The first quarter started off pretty even. Keswick Owens scored in the first drive of the game with a 65 yard touchdown. The Bees bounced back right after and scored to make the score 7 to 6.

By the time halftime rolled around, the ‘Cats were trailing the Bees 6 to 28. Junior wide receiver Garrett Claytor recuperated at halftime and was prepared to continue strong for the last two quarters.

“When you’re down by 22 at half there’s only a certain number of feelings you can have. I felt like we had worked hard throughout the season to get to that point and the only thing we could do is go out there in the second half and execute every side of the ball perfectly to even have a fighting chance.” says Claytor

Entering the third quarter down by 22 points, the Wildcats were walking into a battle. However, the Bees were ready to sting. By the fourth quarter, Rockbridge was trailing Brookville 50-6. Junior Josh Wright was able to score to make the score 50 to 12 Brookville. After the last seconds ticked down, the ‘Cats were defeated 57 to 12. 

This was the final game of the 2021 fall season and the Cats said goodbye to their 10 beloved seniors. The loss was tough on the Wildcats after having such an eventful 13 weeks of football. 

“This loss didn’t have much impact on how I felt at the end of the season. It sort of left a bitter taste in my mouth that we had gone through this eventful season just to get beat in the first round of the playoffs by 45 points.” says Claytor, “Other than that my feelings for this season have stayed constant.”

The Fall 2022 season will be a big adjustment for the ‘Cats. This year’s senior class holds some valuable players including quarterback Miller Jay and running back Seamus Looney. With a new quarterback in training and a lot of young up and coming Wildcats, next season is something to look forward to. 

“Honestly I’m feeling pretty good about next season even though we are losing some huge pieces to our offense and defense. This season gave a lot of juniors the opportunity to gain experience playing varsity football, whereas in previous years we have been a pretty young team.” Claytor states.