Rhea County Wins 20-14 in Overtime on Johnson Catch

Strawberry Plains, TN -- Rhea County High School came away with an overtime win at Carter on Friday August 21, 2020. The 20-14 win was not pretty or easy. It was a testament of the "never give up" attitude of Rhea County football teams over the years.

This game was nothing like last year's 42-6 win by Eagles at home where Eagles accumulated 24 first downs and had two running backs pass 100 yards in rushing. On the night, Eagles ran 34 times for 110 yards. Meanwhile Eagles accumulated only 6 first downs and the 22 penalties on the night accounted for 120 yards to the negative.

Five first half turnovers did not cost the Eagles as much as they could have, so they had to feel good as they entered the second half only down 14-7. Hampton scored his second touchdown of the night late in third quarter(2:01) to pull the Eagles even at 14-14. But when Carter took the ball early in fourth quarter and drove down the field to the goal line of Rhea County, things did not look good for the Eagles. But a huge stop by Austin Brackett at the 3 yard line saved the Eagles and gave Eagles a chance to win in overtime.

In overtime, the Eagles had the ball first, which is not preferred, but they did find the end zone on a Martin to Johnson short pass, but the extra point was not good, opening up the possibility that Carter could pull off the win with touchdown and extra point. Carter did not get a chance for the extra point as Jadden Pankey came up with clutch interception to give the Eagles the 20-14 win.

Carter won the statistical battle with more rushing yards(121-116) passing yards(163-81) first downs(21-6) and turnovers(5-3). Sophomore Chandler Wilson had a very active night with 52 passes and 15 carries for over 200 yards in all purpose yards.(215).

For Rhea County, senior Dalton Hampton had 89 yards rushing on 16 attempts and 68 yards receiving on 3 receptions on the night to lead the offense. Martin has a great start with the 60 yeard touchdown pass to Hampton in first quarter but struggled somewhat until he found redemption with the 3 yard touchdown pass to Eli Johnson for the win.