Rock Hill calms down to rack up 22-7 win

Published 12:00 am Monday, August 29, 2005

FORT GAY, W.Va. - Nothing like a couple of touchdown runs to calm your nerves.

Feeling the opening game pressures, the Rock Hill Redmen settled down and beat the Tolsia Rebels 22-7 Friday night.

"We had first game jitters. We had a lot of blown assignments and first game mistakes. We finally settled down and started playing midway through the second quarter," Redmen coach Todd Knipp said.

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The jitters were evident on the first series and Rock Hill fumbled on the third play of the game.

Jesse Salmons returned the football 32 yards for a touchdown. B.J. Evans kicked the extra point and Tolsia led 7-0.

"That isn't exactly how we wanted to start a road game," Knipp said. "We had some adversity, but we handled it pretty good."

But Rock Hill came up with its own big play.

After Josh "Deuce" Moore blocked a punt, Rock Hill recovered at the 20-yard line and drove in for its first touchdown.

K.C. Christian ran 15 yards on the first play and then went the final 5 yards on the next carry.

"We got a little momentum going into halftime," Knipp said. "We just said we just have to go out and execute and take care of the ball," Knipp said.

With the aid of facemask, Christian capped a long scoring drive to begin the second half as he ran 6 yards for a touchdown to give Rock Hill the lead for good at 13-7. Christian added the conversion run and it was 15-7.

Mark Anderson came up with an interception and returned it 30 yards to set up Rock Hill's next touchdown. A few plays later, Christian bolted 56 yards for the touchdown and Blagg's conversion kick pushed the lead to 22-7.

Christian finished with 146 yards on 22 carries and Blagg added 63 on 17 tries. Rock Hill's defense limited Tolsia to 77 yards on the ground and five first downs.

"Our defense played extremely well," Knipp said. "We just swarmed to the ball. We gave up a couple of plays late, but overall our defense played well."

Rock Hill0787=22

Tolsia7000=7

First Quarter

Tol – Jesse Salmons 32 fumble recovery (B.J. Evans kick)

Second Quarter

RH – K.C. Christian 5 run (T.J. Blagg kick)

Third Quarter

RH – K.C. Christian 6 run (Christian run)

Fourth Quarter

RH – K.C. Christian 56 run (T.J. Blagg kick)

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RHTol

First downs115

Rushes-yards48-21127-77

Passing yards041

Total yards211138

Cmp-Att-Int1-3-02-10-2

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Individual Leaders

RUSHING – Rock Hill: K.C. Christian 22-146, T.J. Blagg 17-63, Josh "Deuce" Moore 4-26, Jarrod Casey 3-minus 23, Derek Robinson 1-minus 1, Dustin Harper 1-0; Tolsia: B.J. Evans 14-60, Jesse Salmons 2-16, Brandon Stacy 2-minus 3, Andrew Banfi 4-3, Darin Parsley 1-7, Adam Perry 4-minus 6.

PASSING – Rock Hill: Jarrod Casey 1-3-0

0; Tolsia: Adam Perry 1-5-1 3, Darin Parsley 2-5-1

38.

RECEIVING – Rock Hill: K.C. Christian 1-0; Tolsia: Nick Dillon 1-3, Charles Williams 1-5, Brandon Stacy 1-33.