Eagles stun Titans in season opener

As the clock runs down the Clarke County Eagles celebrate         Photo by Doug Aylestock / Photography Concepts

BERRYVILLE, Va.- Clarke County Eagles head coach Chris Parker knew he had some big shoes to fill this season with the departure Hunter Rogers, Chris Davis, Brett McDonald, Mackie Martin and Josh Wallace to name just a few of the Eagles lost to graduation.

"I'm thrilled, and I'm proud of our guys, they've got guts," Eagles coach Chris Parker said. "For our first game against a team the caliber that Dominion is that was a huge game, and huge win."

The replacements proved to be up to the task as they made a valiant second half comeback and defeated the favored Dominion Titans out of Loudoun County's Dulles District 39-24. Sophmoreo running back Peyton Rutherford led the way rushing for 217 yards on 33 carries and scored 3 touchdowns and a two point conversion.

"It was great," Rutherford said. "We prepared and came out and did our job. The line did great, they came out and blocked and blocked, and they never stopped. It's amazing, I can't believe this is happening now."

Peyton Rutherford follows Colby Childs.           Photo by Doug Aylestock / Photography Concepts

The Eagles took the opening drive and moved the ball deep into Titan territory before the drive stalled at the Dominion 10 yard line. Nick Bahamonde hit on a 27 yard field goal to give the Eagles the early 3-0 lead. The lead only held for one play as the Titan's Alex Wertz raced 98 yards untouched on the kickoff.

Sophomore quarterback Colby Childs capped another successful drive with a 2 yard touchdown run to give the Eagles another chance to get back in the game.

Dominion scored twice on touchdown passes in the first half and a Bahamonde field goal attempt hit the crossbar with time expiring in the fist half to give the Titans a 21-10 and the momentum going into the locker room.

"The coaches motivated us to keep our heads up," Childs said. "In the first half we made a lot of mistakes and our heads were down. We came out and put our heads up and won.

The motivation worked as Clarke outscored Dominion 29-3 in the second half and the Eagles defense shut down the high powered Titan offense that was led by the rushing of Wertz and the passing of Thomas Jarman.

All state senior Bryan Wallace and senior Lucas Rogers led the charge for the Eagles defense sacking  Jarman several times and thwarting any chance of a comeback.

"My teammates worked their butt off, in the weight room all summer," Rogers said. "We knew we were going to play a very good team. We were in great shape and we executed.

Byran Wallace (60) and Lucas Rogers (44) take down Thomas Jarman     Doug Aylestock / Photography Concepts

The Eagles will host the Manassas Park Cougars this Friday at 7:30PM at Wilbur M. Feltner Stadium in Berryville. This will be the Annual Clarke County High School Hall of Fame Game. 4 Athletes, 1 Coach and 2 Contributors will be inducted at half time.

Post game interviews are posted at the bottom of this page. Game highlights will be available later in the week on The Clarke County Sports Game of the Week.

More of Doug Aylestock's Game Photography can  be seen at his Photography Concepts facebook page:

Clarke vs Dominion Photo Gallery by Doug Aylestock