Richard Montgomery football defeated the Rockville Rams 54-26 Friday night in an aggressive rivalry match, which started with the Rockets captains refusing to shake hands with the Rams. From then on, the Rockets blasted off against their cross-town rivals, effectively shutting down the dangerous quarterback and wide receiver combination Rockville has.

“We all know it’s a rivalry, we all know it’s Rockville. We prepared our [butts] off for this game, being one of the biggest games of the season,” senior linebacker Michael Silver said. “Our season doesn’t depend on this, but it’s big.” The defense forced key stops on fourth down in the first half to help stretch the lead going into halftime.

“Mike Wheeler, defensive coordinator, challenged our defense, saying he looked forward to seeing what would happen when we faced a challenge, what our defense would do when we had to be resilient,” Coach Klotz said. “The defense once again rose to the challenge.”

Before tonight’s game, Rockville’s quarterback Brandon Geddes was fourth in Montgomery County for passing yards with 445. The Rockets defense did well to limit Geddes’ impact, as well as slow down his favorite target, Michael Young, who was third in the County for yards caught.

The offensive explosion from the Rockets led RM to a strong 3-0 start to the season, with sophomore quarterback Spencer Silverstein at the helm. Silverstein threw for four touchdown passes on the night, three to senior Daniel Alexander.

“Last two years, we fell short. But this year, we went all out and you saw what happened on the scoreboard,” Alexander said, who also came up with an important interception to stop a Rockville drive before the first half ended.

The highlight runner from the backfield was junior Tylen Hebron. Hebron came up huge for the Rockets in every unit: offense, defense and special teams. The junior broke an 80-yard run for a score, returned a punt for 80 yards, and intercepted Rockville’s quarterback before the half.

Jhordan Greene was again a force for the Rockets, scoring twice. “I love my team, I love my offensive line, I love everybody,” was the sentiment Greene gave postgame. Greene, a senior, participating in his first Rockville-RM rivalry game saw the importance of the win, but already was focusing in on Wootton next Friday at home.

In the heated environment on and off the field at Rockville, discipline became an issue for the Rockets. Four 15-yard penalties were called on the Rockets during the game, which contributed to several of the Rams scoring drives.

“Our kids play with passion, and excitement, and they’ve got to celebrate with each other,” Coach Klotz said. “They can’t celebrate independently, make any gestures to the crowd, and we talked about that at halftime and we were a little cleaner in the second half. At times it was definitely embarrassing tonight, our actions and some of the penalties.”

An unfortunate blemish on the night was the unruly behavior of some fans after they exited the stadium, which drew a large police presence to the school. The first coverage by the Washington Post immediately after the game was not of the performance on the field, but the fights which broke out among spectators in the parking lot.