          | Riding the winning high came to a bit of an end Friday as the Titusville Rockets fell to Hickory 56-21. "We will be better because of tonight's game," said Rocket head coach Mike Reynolds. "There were things we started doing that we thought, 'we can do this.' We were playing against a team that is vying for a state championship." In recent weeks the strategy for the Rockets has been to score first and set the tone. Unfortunately Hickory won the toss Friday and elected to receive the first kickoff. And they, like the Rockets the previous four weeks, took advantage by scoring quickly. It only took the Hornet's three plays to go 66-yards. They then snuffed the Rockets on their first possession forcing a punt that they then returned to the Rockets' 16-yardline. It didn't take long for them to go up 14-0. On the Rocket’s first possession they tried three straight quarterback keepers, but the second possession looked more like Rocket ball with moving the ball around to different players. A big fourth and a half yard conversion by Jaxon Covell kapt the eventual scoring drive alive. Then a stunning bit of football happened. McDonald was in the pocket and flushed out by a surging Hornet's swarm. He somehow escaped and then escaped again and even a third time before finding an opening to fire a bullet to Kameron Mong who was wide open in the endzone. The Rockets seemed to be back in business, but on the next possession, Hickory’s quarterback Zander Telesz broke loose for an 88-yard run to go up 21-7. Titusville again drove, but turned the ball over on downs. Three-minutes later Hickory was again in the end zone. The Rockets again showed some mettle driving from their own 25 for another score. Again McDonald scrambled around seemingly going to be dropped for a loss when he found some breathing room to rear back to give it everything he had to send one about 50-yards into the endzone to JJ Miller. At this point, they were only down two scores with less than a minute in the half. But on the drive Titusville's all-time rushing leader came out after a helmet to helmet collision. Hickory wasn’t ready to go into the locker room. Morrison ran the kickoff back for another touchdown. With 34 seconds left Titusville tried to pass and move the ball, but Jadon Phillips intercepted, taking it back to the Rocket five. Telesz then hit Phillips in the endzone to put the Hornets up 42-14 at the half. In the second half both Covell and Aiden Yoder came out sans helmet and pads. Without key players a comeback wasn’t likely. Titusville scored once more on a four-yard McDonald run. McDonald passed for 194 yards and ran for another 67 to lead the Rockets. "It was a tough night tonight, but I'm proud of the fight. We'll go back and talk about the things we didn't do well and we will be better because of tonight's game. The Rockets are now 5-2 on the year and 2-1 in the region. They hit the road to face Slippery Rock next week. |
This will likely be a must win against the 2-5 Slippery Rock Rockets because Titusville's final two games are against top ranked squads in Sharon and Fairview.
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