Published: November 08, 2008 12:17 am         

Rox topple Ramblers 35-7 for sectional title

ROCKVILLE — Credit the bulletin-board material? Or just a good offensive line?

Either way, host Rockville went to its running game early and often Friday night in subduing Attica 35-7 for the Class A Sectional 39 high school football championship, the Rox’ second in a row. They’ll be back home again next Friday to face Linton for the regional title in a battle of 12-0 teams.

“[The Red Ramblers] said they were going to force us to run,” coach Herb King of the Rox said after the game, quoting from an unnamed newspaper, “so we told our kids we were going to run.”

The Rox and their coach need to put together a thank-you card for somebody if that’s the case, because the strategy couldn’t have worked out any better for the home team.

Rockville took the opening kickoff and marched 68 yards in eight running plays with ridiculous ease. Quarterback Matt King, who doesn’t get any less work when the Rox stay on the ground, scored the touchdown on a 6-yard run and Billy Bettis added the first of his five extra points.

A three-and-out defensive series got the ball back for the home team, and this time the touchdown drive was 77 yards in 14 plays, 13 of them on the ground. Again Matt King made the big plays — a 3-yard sneak on fourth-and-1, runs of 10 and 15 yards and a 5-yard scoring run with 22.6 seconds left in the first quarter.

When Rockville defensive lineman Blake Cunningham got the first of his two first-half sacks on the final play of the first period, Attica’s offensive stats for the first quarter read four plays, two minutes of possession and a net of minus 13 yards.

“We just powered it,” Matt King said of the game’s start. “The front line did an excellent job.”

“We physically manhandled [the Red Ramblers],” said coach King.

It was a quarter that could have ripped the heart completely out of the visitors, but instead the Red Ramblers showed their pluck.

Cunningham’s sack had set them up for a third-and-24 situation from inside their 20-yard line, but they escaped with the help of a desperation third-down pass from Zach Little to Michael Mattern and a fourth-down conversion by freshman running back Jarrett Smart.

The second of Cunningham’s sacks helped force Attica to punt, and Rockville got the ball back near midfield. But although the Rox converted a fourth-and-8 play on a pass from Matt King to Aaron Bridge to keep this drive going, they couldn’t convert fourth-and-goal from the 1.

Again the Rockville defense clamped down, however, and Rockville got the ball on Attica’s 37-yard line. This time the Rox passed on four of their five plays, scoring on King’s 7-yard completon to Tophel Secuskie with 1:50 left in the first half. Now Attica was surely finished.

Not so fast. A 38-yard kickoff return by John Tapscott and another long heave from Little to Mattern set up a touchdown pass from Little to Willy Hurst with 10.7 seconds left before halftime.

Then the Red Ramblers took the second-half kickoff and marched to Rockville’s 10-yard line, the big plays a pair of scrambles by Little. With fourth-and-1 at that point, the visitors were close to making the game extremely interesting.

“There were two [defensive] plays that really weren’t good for us,” coach King said after the game.

“We had a couple mental breakdowns on defense — some on my part,” said his son, who also plays free safety.

But Cody Stout and Jake Wimsett were credited with plugging the middle on the fourth-down quarterback sneak, dumping Little for a loss. Although Attica kept the Rox pinned inside the 10-yard line, the Rockville defense forced another three-and-out in response. And on Rockville’s second offensive possession of the second half, the Rox put together the game-clinching drive, Secuskie catching his second touchdown pass in the waning seconds of the third quarter.

“The defense did a good job stopping [the Red Ramblers] in the third quarter, and that swung momentum back to us,” said Matt King, who added his third touchdown pass of the game to Drew Kelley in the fourth quarter and who also rushed for a game-high 129 yards. “We loosened them up with the pass a little bit, but mainly it was a ground attack.”

“We got beat by a good team,” said first-year coach Ryan Good of Attica. “[The Rox] were all over the field … but I was proud of our kids.

“We played pretty good defensively,” said Good (Rockville’s 352-yard offensive output was approximately 100 yards below its average for the season). “We were trying everything we could. But [the Rox’] defense toughened up [in the third quarter] and kept us from getting in [the end zone] … but we were fighting.”

“Attica had a great season, and they responded real well to their coach,” coach King said afterward. “But I thought our kids responded well, and were a little bit better physically.

“We want to be able to maintain drives by just running,” added the coach, whose team passed for more than 250 yards per game prior to the sectional championship. “We did a great job up front tonight.”





Rockville 35, Attica 7

Attica 0 7 0 0 — 7

Rockville 14 7 7 7 — 35

R — Matt King 6 run (Billy Bettis kick), 8:47 1st

R — King 5 run (Bettis kick), 0:22.6 1st

R — Tophel Secuskie 7 pass from King (Bettis kick), 1:50 2nd

A — Willy Hurst 15 pass from Zach Little (Matt Wolfe kick), 0:10.7 2nd

R — Secuskie 10 pass from King (Bettis kick), 0:38.3 3rd

R — Drew Kelley 13 pass from King (Bettis kick), 6:53 4th

A R

First downs 8 23

Rushes-yards 28-85 55-261

Passing yards 67 91

Comp-Att-Int 4-21-0 8-14-0

Return yards 0 2

Fumbles-lost 1-1 4-0

Punts-avg 4-29.8 2-26.5

Penalties-yards 8-60 3-25

Individual statistics

Rushing: Attica — Jarrett Smart 10-40, Seth Rooze 2-30, Little 13-19, Wolfe 1-1, John Tapscott 2-minus 5. Rockville — King 24-129, Caleb McMullen 17-61, Tyler Bradburn 6-29, David Parsons 2-21, Secuskie 5-19, Clint White 1-minus 1.

Passing: Attica — Little 4-21-0-67. Rockville — King 8-14-0-91.

Receiving: Attica — Michael Mattern 2-51, Hurst 1-15, Curtis Roe 1-1. Rockville — Kelley 3-38, Aaron Bridge 2-26, Secuskie 2-17, Robert Clevenger 1-10.

Next — Rockville (12-0) has a home game next Friday against Linton for the regional championship. Attica finished 8-4.