Eagles go to 3-0 Overall and 1-0 in District

September 6, 2019

Charleston, TN -- Rhea County High School opened their short three game district slate with a 27-21 win at Walker Valley on Friday, September 6, 2019. Rhea County came into the game with two impressive opening game wins over Knox Carter and Tuscola. Walker Valley came in with opening 42-42 win over Karns after losing every game the previous season, before losing to Bradley Central 59-14.

Rhea County came in confident and took the opening kickoff and marched down the field in an impressive 10 play 85 yard drive. Gavin Roddy returned the kick to the 44 yard line but block in back put the Eagles on their starting position at the 15 yard line.

Jackson Langley went from 15 to the 34 with the help of some great blocks by the right side of the line. Later in drive Langley again went over right side for a first down with run from 36 yard line of Eagles to 42 of Mustangs and he then picked up third first down on run down to 28 yard line. Langley's last long run went from 24 down to 9 yard line for 4th first down of the drive. Mustangs dug in a little but eventually Dalton Hampton ran over from the one yard line for touchdown and missed extra point left score 6-0 with 8:19 left in first quarter.

Mustangs had nice return to 37 yard line to begin their first drive. Mustangs moved the ball down field with mix of passing and quarterback Pope running until Eagle defense stiffened and a 4th down pass went wide and Eagles had their second possession of the game at their own 37 yard line.

Second possession was not the same as first and it was a three and out that resulted in punt downed at 10 yard line of Walker Valley with 2;21 on clock, with the Luke Miller punt traveling 46 yards. Mustangs used a pitch to Griffin Broome to get the initial first down of the drive(23 yard line). A Pope pass of 13 yards took the ball up to 36 and then short toos to sideline and nice run afterwards by Crawford took ball almost to midfield. Dillon Reed came up with interception to end the third quarter and end the drive. Eagles took possession at their own 41 yard line.

On a double handoff move from Carr to Langley resulted in a fifteen yard gain to the 45 of Mustangs. Two good Hampton totes resulted in another Eagle first down a the Mustang 26 yard line of Walker Valley. A nice Langley run was nullified by penalty. Carr found Eli Johnson down the middle for big gain(27 yards) down to Mustang six yard line. From there Hampton took two tries and he was into endzone with Eagles second touchdown. Eagles lead remained at 12-0 after the missed extra point with 8:15 left in half.

Kicking from 35 due to penalty, the Eagles were still able to contain Mustangs inside their 30 on the return at the 29 yard line. Pope hit passes to Broome for first down at 39, then to Denton for first down at Eagle 47. Mustangs then went to ground for their third and fourth first downs on runs by Kole Hall that left the ball sitting on the Eagle 24 yard line(18 yards). Eagles defense stiffended to force fourth down but Mustangs picked up their fifth first down with pass to Griffin Broome to the Eagle 12 yard line. On a direct snap to Broome, the Mustangs picked up another first down a the one yard line. On a bad snap, Broome had to go all the way back to 22 yard line to secure the loose ball. But the Eagles defense lost Dupre and the catch and run put the Mustangs into the end zone for their initial score of the game. Charlie Swafford was successful with extra point to pull Mustangs to within 12-7 with 2:26 left in first half.

Pankey's kickoff return put Eagles in business at their own 27 yard line. Holding penalty shoved the Eagles back to the 17 and drive died and Luke Miller punted ball to Mustangs, who had ball at 46 with less than a minute remaining. Mustangs had a shot with long pass down the homeside sidelines but it was long and there was holding on the play, so Mustangs let the clock run out and settled for 12-7 deficit at halftime.

Mustangs seemed to have momentum opening the second half with big kickoff return from their own after Mustang return man Brody Swafford took the kickoff at the 10 and sliced through Eagles defenders looking like he had a chance to go the distance, but Roddy grabbed his jersey and slowed Swafford down and kicker Ochoa applied the tackle with several Eagles assisting at the Eagle 45 yard line(45 yard return).

Hall carried ball down to 35 yard line. Quarterback Pope found Swafford for an apparent first down but block in back pushed the Mustangs back to the 43 yard line for third and 18. Roddy almost came up with interception but the incompletion setup the punt for Mustangs.

Eagles began at their own 18 after the punt and Cowley short return. Langley surged around right side and bowled over a couple of defender to pick up first down at 39. He picked up second first down with another touch run over midfield to the Walker Valley 47(14 yards). Dalton Hampton followed those two runs with nice 23 yard run to the Mustang 24 yard line. Langley then finished with nice read and run to the end zone to push the Eagle lead to 18 to 7. Langley converted on two point conversion and with 8:08 left in third to push the lead to 20-7

Eagles contained the return by Swafford with tackle by Alday at the Mustang 27 yard line. Pope to Denton picked up the first down at the 29 yard line. Then Pope made nice pass and Broome went up amoung Eagle defenders for the catch and run to move the ball to the Eagle 42 yard line. Sir Alloway and Caden Wicks mad loss of two tackle in the series, but Pope came back with nice pass to give Mustangs chance at 4th and five at the 25 yard line. Receiver dropped the Pope pass that would have given Mustangs the first down and ball went over on downs to Eagles at their 25 yard line with 2:59 left in quarter.

Jackson Langley picked up big first down with run from 32 to 46 yard line of Eagles. Nice run by Eagles lost due to holding against the Eagles and instead they were pushed back to the Mustang 47 yard line. Third quarter ended with Ealges up 20-7 and looking at big third down at the 47. Carr converted the first down with hard run up the gut to the 37 of Walker Valley. Hampton got outside to move the chains with run down to the Mustang 23 yard line. On nice misdirection run, Langley rambled down to the 4 yard line(19 yard gain). Langley then rode the blocks of his linemen and backs into the end zone for the 26th point. Ochoa's extra point set the Eagle lead at 27-7 with 9:31 left in the game, but plenty of time still left to play.

Walker Valley setup their offense at their own 32 yard line. On big third down, Kole Hall received the little dump pass and rambled down to the 49 yard line of Eagles. Jacob Stringfellow had nice tackle for loss to setup long third down but Pope found Swafford in a seam and he carried the ball down to the 29 yard line for first down as he was tackled by Pankey and Reid. Again the Mustangs found a hole in the pass defense and Reid Gibson hauled down another first down pass catch for Mustangs down to the four yard for the first and goal. Two direct snaps to Broome later, the Mustangs were into the end-zone and whe they added the extra point, Rhea County's lead was cut to 27-14 with 6:25 left in the game.

Onside kick was exciting as ball went the required ten yards before oozing past the front line of Eagles. Mustangs jumped on the pile but Bradley Goodwin walked up and picked up ball from the pile and Eagles retained the ball at the 46 yard line. Early in the series, a personal found on Rhea County set the Eagles back to their own 37 yard line for second and 20. Eagles had to punt but a "running into kicker' gave the Eagles an automatic first down at the 44 yeard line of Walker Valley. Langley then had nice run nullified by holding. Eagles eventually had to punt, but buried the Mustangs inside the five yard line.

Mustangs were running out of time, but big pass play got them back in the game as Pope found Swafford in the flats and he raced downt he left sideline for a big 81 yard touchdown that had Eagle fans sweating as the onside kick would be coming with just over two minutes remaining. The kick was good and score stood at 27-21 Eagles.

Eli Johnson picked the onside kick out of the air and went to the ground giving the Eagles possession near midfield. Kyle Carr had big run down to the 13 and Eagles were able to run down the clock and get out of the Corral with a 27-21 win.

After the game, Coach Pemberton said, "All the games are big. We found a way to win. I will take an ugly win over a loss anyday. I think we rushed for over 300 yards. We had way too many penalties. Defensively I though we played well until that last quarter."

"Had some real good plays by our punter Luke Miller had a very good game. Our kicker, will get better."

"Carr had nice run late. He has sneaky way about him and he gets up into the pile and breaks out of there."

"We can go into next week and concentrate on ourselves and begin our preparation for Lenior City(after bye week this week).

Junior Varsity and Varsity play Walker Valley on Monday at 6 pm at Walker Valley.

Rhea County had 352 yards rushing on the night, while holding Walker Valldy to 36 yards. On the flip side, Walker Valley amassed 341 yards passing to 27 for Rhea County. Nine pentalties cost the Eagles 95 yards and 7 pentalties cost Mustangs 67 yards. Eagles came up with the one turnover on Reid interception. Luke Miller had a nice 38.6 yard punting average on three punts and buried the Mustangs deep inside their territory on one of them and avoided blocked punts too.

Langley continues to impress with 21 carries for 205 yards(over 500 in three games) and 2 touchdowns, just five yards shy of 10 yards per carry. Dalton Hampton also had nice night with 124 yards on 18 carries and the other two touchdowns.

Walker Valley's Pope went 30 for 41 for 341 yards on the night to led their offense.

On defense it was Roddy with five tackles to lead the way, Drew Fisher, Sir Alloway and Dillon Reed each had 4 tackles, while Sir Alloway and Drew Fisher assisted on 9 and 8 tackles respectiviely. 17 different players were in on tackles on the night for the Eagles.

Player	Tackes	Assist	Total
Roddy	5	4	9
Pankey	2	6	8
Fisher	4	8	12
Alloway	4	9	13
Wicks	2	6	8
Alday	3	5	8
Pankey	2	6	8
Goodwin	2	6	8
Reed	4	3	7