Going into Friday evening, the Blue-and-Gold was confident against neighbor Lexington, a team they’ve defeated five out of the last seven seasons.
This year was different than most, as the Eagles came into this season ranked 16th in Class 3A-II (a classifi cation below Rockdale) and were undefeated with a very experienced roster before making their way to Tiger Stadium on Friday evening.
In the week prior, Lexington blasted Rockdale district foe Troy, 43-25 and this past Friday, it seemed as if that momentum had made it’s way across the Milam County line.
Early in the night, the Tigers marched into great field position, but couldn’t capitalize on it. The Tigers failed to score from the red zone and had another missed opportunity moments later, when the Tigers recovered an Eagle fumble that ended with another scoreless Rockdale series.
Lexington ended up scoring first on a Kaiden Chappel nine-yard touchdown run with three seconds left in the opening quarter. A Kevin Nava extra point failed and the Eagles led 6-0 going into the next quarter.
A little more than two minutes into the second, LHS extended their lead to 13-0 after Chappel broke away from Tiger defenders to strike again on a 73-yard TD pass from freshman quarterback Kase Evans.
Towards the end of the first half, the Blue-and-Gold scored on a six-yard field goal by Daniel Romero, making it 13-3 at halftime.
In the third, Lexington extended their lead to 26-3 with another TD from Chappel a little more than a minute into the quarter and a 12-yard run by Daylon Washington with nearly five minutes into the second half.
The Milam County squad chipped away at the lead with a 40-yard run by Blaydn Barcak less than two minutes later to make it 26-10, but LHS went back up 23 points with another Washington touchdown run with 2:56 left in the third.
Although Barcak found Robert Owens in the endzone for a six-yard TD pass six seconds into the fourth, the Eagles went on to defeat the Tigers, 33-18.
Rockdale head coach Jacob Campsey didn’t hold back following the game, saying he and his team will have to reassess before going into district play, which begins on Friday, Sept. 30 against Franklin.
“I have to figure out and soul search about why we are playing so un-clean,” Campsey said. “I can speak offensively that when we weren’t committing a penalty, we were dropping the ball.”
“To be frank with you, there were about three or four plays where we looked at the wrong signaler,” he said. “It was just a mess, it was not clean. It’s soul-searching time.”
10-3A-I, Rockdale’s district which features two 2021 state champions (Frank- lin and Lorena) along with highly-touted Cameron and Academy, is said to be the toughest district in the classification multiple Texas High School football insiders.
“We have to figure out what we want out of this,” he said. “Because it’s there for the taking, but we have to do what winners and it’s got to start right now.”
Campsey also said that his team needs to have a sense of urgency to fix their mistakes.
“We haven’t had a sense of urgency (to fix things),” he said. “But we’re one game away from playing Franklin.”
S TATS— Barcak was 29 of 50 with 273 yards and one touchdown pass with 87 rushing yards on 13 carries. RHS junior tight end Riley Spears accumulated 76 yards on seven catches while Kemar Spencer had 12 carries for 56 yards. On defense, Cade Pantaleon led the Blue-and-Gold with 10 tackles while Chad David, in his first game back, had two tackles-for-loss.
ROAD TRIP— On Friday, the Tigers will make the 131-mile trip to San Saba’s Rogan Field to face Tuscola- Jim Ned, a team picked to win District 3-3A-I that came into the 2022 season ranked fifth in the state.
JNHS hasn’t won a game in their first three contests, but their previous opponents include Hawley, a 2021 Class 2A-I state finalists that is ranked second in their respective classification as of Monday by Texas Football, beating them 30-7.
Jim Ned has also lost to Holliday, the second-ranked team in Class 3A-II, 41-19, and is coming off a 3-0 loss to Wall, who began the season ranked 18th in Class 3A-II.
“They’re a big physical team and they’re going to run it down our throat all night.” Campsey said.
The Tuscola school has five offensive players back from their 2021 regional semi-finalist team and seven returning on defense.
They are led by running backs Brayden Shipman and Gray Beasley but also aren’t afraid to throw the ball to receivers Troy Duran, Tanner Hussman and Jackson Crane.
Going into the game, Campsey says his team is at an intersection.
“I don’t like bringing up 2017 with our guys, but I felt this exact same feeling after ending up 1-2 when we played Lexington and that was a much worse butt-whooping,” he said. “They made a decision to do the right thing and we’re at a cross roads right now.”
“It’s familiar territory. We’ve been there and done that,” he added. “It’s time to strap up and go.”
Kick-off is 7:30 p.m.
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