On Friday Oct. 28, the RCHS ‘Cats welcomed the Harrisonburg Streaks to Rockbridge County with a crushing win. The evening began with recognition to all football, cheer and band seniors. To celebrate senior night, seniors Garrett Claytor and Daronde Stores combined for a total of six touchdowns to bring the ‘Cats to victory. 

Quarterback Claytor had a total of 151 rushing yards and 4 touchdowns. Claytor had to fill in on defense for senior Garrett Stillwell who had been taken down by the flu and was unable to play that evening. While on defense, Claytor had multiple tackles for loss and an interception. 

“Personally I feel like I played better than the last few games especially with the four-touchdown performance. I just wish I would have picked up some yardage through the air.” said Claytor

Running back Daronde Stores had a total of two touchdowns and 207 rushing yards. Stores is 200 yards away from reaching 1,000 total rushing yards this season. 

The night began with a touchdown from Harrisonburg’s VJ Bullard early in the game. The Wildcats clawed right back with a touchdown from Claytor on the next drive of the game. The Streaks evened the game minutes later with another touchdown from Bullard. At the end of the first quarter, the ‘Cats were trailing the Streaks 7-14. In the second quarter, Claytor went to pick off Harrisonburg’s quarterback giving the ‘Cats an extra chance with the ball.  After his pick, Claytor scored a touchdown and Stores earned a touchdown, making the score at halftime 20-14. 

“My interception in the second quarter was a big surprise to me since I wasn’t expecting to play defense at all,” said Claytor.

After halftime, Stores came out with a 50 yard touchdown and Claytor scored the two point conversion. This brought the game to 28-14. After a missed snap, Harrisonburg was awarded a safety making the score 28-16. The Streaks weren’t done yet and Bullard came back with another touchdown and two point conversion bringing the score 28-23. Claytor then scored a 60 yard touchdown and Clay Irvine caught the two point conversion changing the score to 36-23.  

After a fourth touchdown from Claytor and two point conversion from Stores, the final score of the night was 44-23 leaving the Wildcats with a record of 4-5 and the Streaks with a record of 0-9. 

“Honestly, senior night wasn’t as emotional as I thought it would be. It was pretty sad that this was my last game ever in Veteran’s Stadium but that was not a setback for me. This game was about us seniors and I feel like we showed out,” said Claytor. 

The Wildcats will play their final regular season game on Nov. 4 at Turner Ashby High School with hopes of winning to have a chance to secure a spot in the playoffs. For more information on the ‘Cats football team, visit any of Rockbridge Athletics social media pages.