Everything was good.

It was a perfect day for homecoming at Chapel Hill on Friday, the much-anticipated parade went on as scheduled a little light but without a hitch as the Class of ‘95’ got its firetruck ride, the beautiful homecoming Queen Hannah Villazon received her crown, the heroes and victims of 9/11 and the community first responders were honored before the game, and the Forrest Rockets entertained historical rival Moore County in a non-region contest at the Murrey E. Holton Memorial Field.

Everyone’s lives would be different later that night.

The Raiders came in as the sixth-ranked team in the Associated Press’ Class A Prep Poll and left on an upward swing after breaking a five-game losing streak versus Chapel Hill with a convincing 35-14 win.

The Rockets didn’t help themselves, turning the ball over five times in the first half and once in the second half, plus Forrest was whistled for 10 penalties that cost them 97 yards.

“Nothing went our way tonight, we had a rough night tonight,” Forrest coach Eli Stephenson said. “We turned the ball over way too much, we had way too many penalties, but our boys still played hard, we just kept digging ourselves a home and couldn’t get out of it tonight.”

Forrest should have gone to the halftime break down by 28 points, but a stout defensive effort kept them in the contest as the Raiders led 21-7 before taking the second half kickoff and marching 69 yards in five minutes to take a commanding 28-7 lead.

The Rockets went three-and-out on their ensuing drive, but caught a break when Moore County muffed the punt and Layne Bowman recovered at the Moore County 33-yard line.

Two plays later, the Rockets coughed up the ball again with 3:39 left in the game.

On the first snap of the ensuing Moore County offensive series, things changed forever when Forrest sophomore standout Micah McClendon came up to make a tackle on a pass play and was left motionless on the gridiron.

After a long and silent delay as emergency personnel attended to the injured Rocket, McClendon was transported to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville were it was determined that McClendon had suffered a fractured vertebrae in his neck.

After a long surgery on Saturday, McClendon is in recovery and the status of his traumatic injury is undetermined at press time.

“I thought our kids kept playing for him,” an emotional Stephenson said after the game. “They didn’t give up, they finished the game and that’s what I am very much proud of this team, it doesn’t matter what the score is, they are going to play their hearts out and I’m blessed to coach these guys.”

“We are going to keep Micah in our prayers and pray for a speedy recovery.”

After resumption of play, Moore County finished off the scoring drive and the sophomore Rocket Davis, scored his second touchdown of the game on the Rockets’ final drive of the night for the 35-14 final.

Davis turned in a career performance for Forrest, rushing for 128 yards on 15 carries and scored both of the Rockets’ touchdowns.

The first one was a 27-yard second quarter touchdown run and the second was a little unconventional as Davis took a swing pass from backup quarterback Austin Dillon and took off for the home sideline where he fumbled the ball, but it bounced right back into his arms and he ran in for the score.

Moore County quarterback Kyler Parker had a huge game for the Raiders, running for two scores and throwing for two more for undefeated Moore County (4-0, 1-0), who travel to fifth-ranked Fayetteville Friday night for a big Region 5-A clash with the Tigers.

The Rockets (2-2, 0-1) make the long trek to Loretto (2-1, 0-0) this week to take on the Mustangs, who picked up a COVID-19 win over Collinwood on Friday.

“It was homecoming and we wanted to beat Moore County, but the good thing is it was a non-region game and we still have a long way to go to meet our goals,” Stephenson said. “We just have to fix ourselves this week, have great practices all week, and show up down there in Loretto.”

Forrest has won all three meetings since both teams were realigned in the same region in 2017.

Moore County 14 7 14 0-35

Forrest 0 7 0 7-14

Scoring Plays

First Quarter

Moore County- Kyler Parker 3-yard run (Chase Bradford kick), 7:33.

Moore County-Kaden White 46-yard pass from Kyler Parker (Chase Bradford kick), 3:27.

Second Quarter

Forrest-Chris Davis 27-yard run (Gavin Grissom kick), 10:37.

Moore County-Tyler Smith 14-yard run (Chase Bradford kick), 9:23

Third Quarter

Moore County-Kyler Parker 5-yard run (Chase Bradford kick), 7:02

Moore County- Ryder Morey 65-pass from Kyler Parker (Chase Bradford kick), 0:26.

Fourth Quarter

Forrest-Chris Davis 11-yard fumble recovery (Gavin Grissom kick), 0:29.

Total Offense: Moore County 323, Forrest 233.

Rushing: Moore County 89, Forrest 184.

Passing: Moore County 234, Forrest 49.

First Downs: Moore County 16, Forrest 13.

Turnovers: Moore County 1, Forrest 6.

Penalties: Moore County 8-60, Forrest 10-97.

Forrest Offense

Rushing: Chris Davis 15-128-TD, Max Kirby 6-33, Tayton Swift 6-10, Brenton Burchell 4-10, Ben Villazon 1-2, Joseph Whitaker 1-1, Liam Bell 1-0.

Passing: Max Kirby 5-13-49-TD-2INT.

Receiving: Joseph Whitaker 2-11, Chris Davis 1-13, Boston Follis 1-13, Cole Perryman 1-12.

Kicking

PAT: Gavin Grissom 2-2.

Defense

Tackles: Aiden Freeman 6, Noah Hill 4 (SACK), Max Kirby 3, Tayton Swift 3, Micah McClendon 3, McCalister Wilson 3, Boston Follis 2, Layne Strasser 2, Brenton Burchell 1, Chris Davis 1, Hunter Pendley 1.