Rhea County Football Back on Track With Win
October 25, 2019
Knoxville, TN -- Rhea County High School won 41-14 in a driving rain on Friday at Karns High School in Knoxville, Tennessee. With the win, the Eagles broke a two game losing streak after beginning the year with six straight wins. Though an out of region game, this game had significance as the Eagles needed to build momentum for the playoffs coming in a couple of weeks with losses.
Rhea County will return on next Friday for senior night against Marion County with a 7:30 pm kickoff scheduled. Marion County comes in with 2-7 record and one of their recent losses was 41-0 against Walker Valley, at team the Eagles beat earlier in the season.
Good news is this will not be the final home game, but it will be the last regular season game for several seniors on the team. Rhea County is still looking for a possible 5A Region 4 title if Walker Valley wins against Soddy Daisy on the last game of the season. Rhea should win the title with a three way tie breaker for best overall record, which they would have. So as Rhea plays Marion, fans will be intently following the Walker Valley game being playing just down highway 27 in Soddy Daisy. Soddy will enter game with a record of 5-4 and Walker Valley enters game with record of 4-5. Soddy is 2-0 in region play and Walker Valley is 1-1. Rhea County has compelted region play with 2-1 record.
Stats for the night:
On the night, Ryan Young and Dalton Hampton each had two touchdowns. Taylor Cowley scored on pass from Carr and Carr scored on a run for the touchdowns for Eagles. Ochoa added five successful extra points for 41 points.
Dalton Hampton had 123 yards on 20 carries, Destin Shelfer 86 yards on 13 carries, Ryan Young 56 yards on 6 carries and Kyle Carr 15 yards on 5 carriers for the 288 yards rushing. Carr had two pass completions on the night to Cowley for 35 yards. Eagles had 12 first downs on the night.
On defense Drew Fish(6) and Avery Allday(5) lead the Eagles in tackles. Destin Shelfer(2) and Jaylee Elsea(1) had tackles for loss. Caden Wicks was credited with a sack.
Rhea County did not punt on the night and Karns had 4 punts for 23.75 average. Each team had two turnovers. Karns had two fumbles and Eagles recovered a fumble and also had an interception by Jadden Pankey.
Rhea County held Karns to 166 yards on the night with 100 yards rushing and 66 yards passing. Rhea County held Karns to 4 first downs.
Coach Pemberton told the team, "I am very pleased with the effort" at the post-game meeting in the rain.
Game Action:
Had to give the weatherman his due for this one. Rain was called for all night and the weather showed up strong for the night. Rhea County received the kickoff and returned kick to around midfield. Eagles marched down the field with Destin Shelfer carrying the ball several times before Ryan Young took the ball the last 34 yards for the touchdown. Ochoa added successful kick for 7-0 lead.
Rhea County defense was strong, forcing a punt that Taylor Cowley returned to the karns 35 yard line. Ryan Young finished the drive with an 11 yard run up the middle to push the score to 14-0, after the Ochoa kick with 4:23 left on the clock.
Scoring slowed down the rest of the half as Eagles missed a field goal and turned the ball over on downs on a couple of deep drives into Beaver territory. Eagles unexpectedly received a last chance to score as Beavers turned ball over on downs at their own 21 yard line. With just 21 seconds on the clock, Kyle Carr found Cowley in the end zone for a 21 yard pass play for touchdown. Ochoa added the kick and Eagles were up 21-0 at halftime.
In second half the Eagles gave up the first score for Karns with 3:30 left in the third on a five yard run by Desean Bishop. Beavers added two point conversion to trail 21-8. Rhea County came back with a Carr 4 yard run early in the fourth quarter(11:06) to put Eagles up 28-6.
Dalton Hampton added two more fourth quarter scores on runs of 4 yards and 1 yard. Ochoa was successful on one of the two extra point trys as a fumbled snap prevented the success of the other one. Karns added a second touchdown when Bishop had a 54 yard touchdown run. Two point try was unsuccessful. Final score Rhea County 41 Karns 14.