Rhea County Wins 34-20 Over McMinn County to Open Region Play

September 3, 2021

Evensville, TN -- Rhea County and McMinn County football teams opened Region 4 play with the winner to to get leg up on Region 5 crown. Both teams came off losses in their previous game. The teams had not played since 2019 in a game that McMinn has won 15-7. So the next chapter of the seires was soon to be written. When the game ended, it was Rhea County that moved to region lead(tied with Walker Valley). The Eagles had a old fashioned run, run, run performance that saw the Eagles dominate the line of scrimmage and Ethan Davis run with authority to give Eagles. Defense for the most part performed well but did give up late score to make the game closer at the final horn. Overall the Eagles shutdown the Cherokees in the second half after giving up 14 points early. Penalties were a problem for both teams and they contributed to Cherokee scores.

Rhea County 34 McMinn 20

It was a good night for football and both teams looked to open season with win. Representing McMinn at midfield were captains Connor Bates, Kaimen Smith, Caley Johnson and Danny Belton. Representing Eagles was senior players Drew Fisher, Jadden Pankey and Justin Woody. McMinn won the toss and received opening kickoff and setup for first drive at their 27. Eagles came out in 3-5 defense. McMinn went with 3 wides to open the game. Cherokees had big pass play from junior quarterback Jayden Miller to Luke Hensley to the 45 yard line, Eagles defense stiffened and McMinn punted the ball 52 yards into the end zone to put Eagles at the 20 for their first drive.

Sophomore Briley Mayberry had big play in opening drive with 32 yard play down to the 45 of McMinn. Mayberry also had a 10 yard run in the drive and Garrett Ramsey found the end zone from 10 yards out with 7:40 left in the first quarter. Kicker Cole Ruehling was good on point-after-touchdown for the 7-0 lead for Eagles.

On the kickoff by Ruehling, Noah Glenn returned ball 18 yards to 36 to setup Cherokees second possession. Junior Davion Evans had a 17 yard run to move the ball to 47 of the Eagles and Miller had 13 yard run to move down to 38 of Eagles. After a pass interference peanalty took an interception off the board and moved the ball down close to red zone, a Miller had a short pass completion before finding the end zone on a short run. The after touchdown kick was eschewed for a trick play that somehow worked, even though not properly executed as Hester found Hensley for the pitch and Hensley scored the 2 point conversion to give Cherokees an 8-7 lead.

The Cherokees kickoff was very good and pinned Rhea County deep(9 yard line). Martin had a very nice 91 yard touchdown removed via penalty and eventually Eagles punted from deep in their territory and Cherokees were setup at the 18 after a very short punt. Eagle defense led by Jarred Fisher and Sir Alloway(sack) forced McMinn to attempt the long field goal of 42 yards and the kick was good for unusual 11-7 score as time was running out in first quarter(8 seconds).

Sophomore kicker Sencer Sullins had deep kick to the 4, the Jadden Pankey returned to the 36 yard line. Martin found Mayberry for the 21 yard pass completion to put the ball at the McMinn 43 yard line. Eagles then went to ground game and Crowe and Davis helped move ball downfield and unsportsman penalty put the ball at the 17 of McMinn. Couple of more penalties helped the Eagles move down to the 1 yard line where Martin picked up the second touchdown of the night to push Eagles to 14-11 lead after the Ruehling kick with 8:57 left in the first half.

Glenn returned the Rhea kick to the 28 yard line(12 yard return). Alloway had a couple of tackles in the drive but Evans found the yardage for first down at the McMinn 41 yard line. Brackett/Pankey(3 yard tackle for loss) and Fisher tackles help turn the Cherokees over on downs at the 44 yard on unsuccessful fourth down attempt.

On next possession the Eagles also turned the ball over on downs and Eagles forced punt for McMinn but a roughing the kicker(came within eyelash of blocking the punt) gave the Cherokees new life. Milller had big run in the series and another bad penalty on Eagles gave the Cherokees the ball on the 16 yard line. Woody had big sack on Miller to force the field goal attempt and Sullins make his second field goal of the half to put the score at 14-14 with 1;27 left in half. Eagles ran out of time before they could mount a drive and halftime arrived with score 14-14.

Eagles received ball first in second half. Eagles began at the 18 and it was Ethan Davis time. Seven consecutive Davis carriers and three first downs later the Eagles were at the 34 yard line of McMinn. Briley Mayberry gave Davis a rest for two nice runs. Davis then had another three carries and the Eagles had first and goal at the 3 yard line where Davis got his 3 yard touchdown run. Ruehling added a successful point-after-touchdown for the 21-14 lead

Game was still very much in question as Ruehling kicked off to Cherokees as they began their drive at the 27 yard line. Evans had nice gain and refs tacked on another 15 yards for personal foul to move on the Eagles. Eagles stiffened and punt gave Eagles ball on 16 yard line with 3:43 left in third quarter. Davis, Mayberry and Martin each had big runs as Eagles moved the ball down into McMinn terriroty at the 45. Third quarter ended during this Eagle drive. Mayberry had big run down to he 13 yard line. Drive continued with Davis finding endzone from the 2 yard line for the 27th point for the Eagles and unsuccessful PAT left the score 27-14.

Cherokee began next drive at their own 33 yard line with 9:27 left in the game. A big draw play by Evans moved the ball to the 28 yard line of Rhea County. A penalty on Rhea County added 15 yards down to the 13 yard line. Brackett/Fisher combined for tackle for loss and Cherokee drive ended on incomplete pass on a 4th and 13 situation.

Eagle began their drive on their own 17. Looked like a good time to burn some clock but Davis found a seam and 79 yards later, he was into the endzone with Eagles last touchdown of the night. Ruehling kick pushed the margin to 34-14.

Kickoff and return setup McMinn at their own 26. complete passes to Prince(14) and Hester(17) moved the ball to th 23 yard line of the Eagles. Miller overcome an intentional grounding penalty to pass and run the Cherokees to their second touchdown of the night and the first since the first quarter. The 10 yard run by Miller cut the Eagle lead to 34-20. the 2 point conversion attempt failed and that was the end of scoring for the night with 3:40 left in game.

A pouch kick by Sullins was fielded by Ethan Davis, Eagles were foced to punt. McMinn began their final drive at their own 26 after the best punt of the night for the Eagles. A couple of completions from Miller to Glenn were followed by two incompletes before two runs did not earn a first down and Eagle took over with 1.7 seconds left and they ran out the clock.

Davis was the top performer of the night with over 150 yards rushing and three touchdowns. Great to see Davis displaying some of that ability that accountd for 974 yards last year. Without the penaltes, the final margin most likely woul have been bigger. Punting and penalties will be an area of focus between this game and the upcoming Anderson County game next Friday, September 10th at home in Evensville. Several players made big plays on defense. Mayberry added some big yards and Ramsey also had some good runs and the 10 yard touchdown run. Martin added the other touchdown and Ruehling had 4 succeessful point after touchdowns with the one unsuccessful PAT that was not his fault.