by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — Two Wellington fumbles led to two Rose Hill touchdowns and the Rockets would eventually pull way for a 35-0 victory on homecoming night.

Wellington fell to 0-5.

The Crusaders came into this game thinking they had the recipe for their first victory of the season. Rose Hill had other ideas.

It didn’t help that on the Crusaders fourth play of its opening drive resulted in a fumble. Then when it appeared Rose Hill was stalled and facing a fourth-and-5 situation, the Rockets completed a 24-yard pass play from Trent Barnhart to Noah Paredes to the 1. Koby Campbell went in from the 1 to give Rose Hill a 7-0 lead. 

Wellington would then move the ball into enemy territory, but the Rockets came up with a big play on a nice looking screen pass to the flat. For the rest of the quarter, it looked as if Wellington was going to compete evenly with Rose Hill. But then came another fumble at the Wellington 34.

Rose Hill would then score five plays later on a Barnhart quarterback scramble from the 2 to make it 14-0.

The real killer came late in the first half when Wellington was hoping to stop Rose Hill to go into halftime trailing by a much-more manageable two-touchdown deficit. Instead, the Rockets moved down the field with help of an incredible one-handed 39-yard O’Dell Beckham type of catch by Paredes. Rose Hill’s Bryson Evans scored from the 3 and the Rockets led 21-0.

Rose Hill immediately scored to start the second half when Campbell ran for 54 yards. Then Rose Hill’s Bryson Evans threw a 68-yard zinger to his fellow quarterback, now receiver, Barnhart. It was 35-0 and it was clearly a romp – the last thing Wellington was expecting.

Wellington again gave up huge chunks of yardage in the passing department – 160 this game. Rose Hill had 72 yards rushing for a combined 232 yards in total offense.

The Crusaders had 107 yards rushing and 64 yards passing for 171 total yards.

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