The Forrest Rockets came in to Friday’s senior night contest versus longtime rival Cascade without starting senior quarterback Max Kirby and running back Brenton Burchell, but they put up a spirited fight at the Murrey E. Holton Memorial Field in Chapel Hill, falling 17-14.

“We have to play with next man up mentality, you never know when you are going to play and you have to be ready at all times to play,” Forrest coach Eli Stephenson said. “We have to keep that mentality going, we have to keep grinding and go back to the drawing board and go have a good week of practice this week.”

With the win, the Champions broke a six-game losing streak to the Rockets, dating back to 2014.

“Any time you get beat by a rival you are not happy about it, but they got the better of us tonight,” Stephenson said.

Forrest only mustered 162 yards of offense with Tayton Swift rushing for 63 yards on 12 carries, Noah Hill took a spot in the backfield and ran the ball 12 times for 46 yards and the Rockets’ only touchdown on offense, while Joseph Whitaker added 41 yards on five touches.

Freshman quarterback Austin Dillon completed one pass for 21 yards to Boston Follis.

“Cascade came out and took it to us,” Stephenson said. “They beat us on the offensive line, D-Line, secondary and they were more physical than us. They had a good game plan and came in and executed better than we did.”

The Rockets turned the ball over one time and Cascade played an error free game.

Cascade deferred after winning the opening coin toss and the Rockets picked up one first down before punting the ball away.

The Forrest defense also gave up one first down before forcing a Cascade punt, but the Rockets fumbled the ball away at their own 25-yard line and the Champions cashed in with a Drake Hodge 30-yard field goal with 2:34 remaining in the first quarter.

Forrest still could not get anything going on offense and punted again.

The Champions got the ball at their own 36-yard yard line and after a first down incompletion, Champion quarterback Seth Countess broke off a 64-yard touchdown run.

After the Hodge extra point, Forrest senior Aiden Freeman caught the ensuing kickoff at the 20-yard line and went straight up the middle and all the way to the end zone for a touchdown.

Carson Baker booted the extra point kick through the uprights to cut the Cascade lead to 10-7 with 32 seconds left in the first quarter.

Cascade faced a fourth-and-seven play at the Forrest 40-yard and they tried the fake punt, but the Rockets were ready and snuffed out the attempt to take over on downs.

Unfortunately they went three-and-out and the Champions mounted another drive that was halted at the Forrest 29-yard line where Hodge tried a long field that came up short and left and the first half ended with the Rockets down by three points.

The Champions could not move the ball on their first possession of the second half, but they pinned the Rockets back at the Forrest 10-yard line on the nice punt.

Forrest managed to pick up one first down before punting the ball back to Cascade, who had good field position at their own 44-yard line with 5:52 remaining in the third quarter.

The defense looked like it would hold, but Logan McDonald picked up a first down on a fourth-down run and the Champions marched to the Forrest 2-yard line where Countess ran it in for a touchdown.

The Hodge successful extra point made it a 17-7 contest with 19 seconds left in the third quarter.

Forrest tried to move the ball for a score, but were stopped on a fourth-down play at the Cascade 47-yard line where the Champions took over.

Cascade burned about three minutes off the clock before punting the ball back to Forrest when the skies opened up with just over six minutes remaining in the contest.

The Rockets had the ball at their own 13-yard line and finally got something moving on offense as they drove all the way down the field and on the thirteenth play of the drive, senior Noah Hill slammed in to the end zone from 1-yard out with 46 seconds left in the contest.

The ensuing on sides kick was recovered by the Champions, who went in to victory formation for one play to seal the win.

The Rockets (6-3, 4-0) travel Hohenwald Friday night in the regular season finale that will decide the Region 5-AA title.

“Lewis County is a good team,” Stephenson said. “We have to fix ourselves first and get ready for Lewis County this week.

“What I love about football is it teaches you about real life, stuff is not going to go your way so you just have to pick yourself up off the matt and keep fighting or just give up and I know this group of kids will come back and keep fighting.”

Third-ranked Lewis County (9-0, 4-0) leads the region in points scored (350) and fewest points allowed (85) and will be looking to avenge a 16-13 loss to the Rockets in last year’s regular season finale at Chapel Hill.

Cascade 10 0 7 0-17

Forrest 7 0 0 7-14

Scoring Plays

First Quarter

Cascade-Drake Hodge 30-yard field goal, 2:34.

Cascade-Seth Countess 64-yard run (Drake Hodge kick), 0:45.

Forrest-Aiden Freeman 80-yard kickoff return (Carson Baker), 0:32.

Third Quarter

Cascade-Seth Countess 2-yard run (Drake Hodge kick), 0:19.

Fourth Quarter

Forrest-Noah Hill 1-yard run (Carson Baker kick), 0:46.

Total Yards: Cascade 257, Forrest 162.

Rushing: Cascade 221, Forrest 141.

Passing: Cascade 36, Forrest 21.

First Downs: Cascade 12, Forrest 10.

Penalties: Cascade 6-45, Forrest 4-50.

Turnovers: Cascade 0, Forrest 1.

Forrest Offense

Rushing: Tayton Swift 12-63, Noah Hill 12-46-TD, Joseph Whitaker 5-41, Chris Davis 1-3, Boston Follis 1-1, Austin Dillon 3-(-3).

Passing: Austin Dillon 1-2-21-0-0.

Receiving: Boston Follis 1-21.