The Forrest Rockets played with a lot of energy on Tuesday night in their opening game of the 2011-2012 season.  For three quarters the Rockets battled every possession with the home Franklin Rebels and trailed by only 6 points (41-35) going in the last quarter.  The game continued to stay close for a few minutes into the fourth with a score of 46 - 40, before Franklin went on an 8-0 run to make the score 54-40.  The final score of the game was Franklin High School 67, Forrest High School 49. 

"We just ran out of gas a little bit down the stretch," Coach Hobbs said while discussing the ballgame.  "We had several key players log a lot of minutes tonight, and as we got a little tired, some mental mistakes began to happen and a good team like Franklin is going to take advantage. I have to give them a lot of credit, because anytime we got close, it seemed like they would make a big shot.  I'm just glad that our team came out, played hard, represented our school and fans well, and gave Franklin a pretty good opening ballgame. Playing quality opponents early is only going to help us down the road."

The Rockets were led in scoring by Mark Pope who buried 3 three-point field goals on his way to 22 points.  Zach Horvath added 10,  Marshall Hunter had 9, and Colby Anglin, before leaving the game in the early second period, added 5.  Juice Rumley hit a free throw and Ty Hoeft finished the game with 2 points. 

With the injury to Anglin, and the football players watching from the bench, Forrest got some quality minutes from Sophomores Ty Hoeft, Chase Hensley, Kennedy Mathis, and Caleb Keller.  These players did a nice job in a reserve role as they logged their first true varsity minutes.

The Rockets will look to correct some mental errors and build on the first three quarters of this game as they travel to Houston Co. on Saturday to battle Houston Co. and Hickman Co. in a Hall of Fame double header.

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