Eagles Win 31-28 With Big Plays Late

September 4, 2020 Evensville, TN --  Rhea County won 31-28 against Walker Valley on Friday night to take control of the Region 5-A with a great come-from-behind win in their home opener. Walker Valley began the night in grand fashion as Brody Swafford went 85 yards for touchdown on opening return gives Walker Valley the early 6-0 lead after two point conversion fails.  Eagles get ball bacck and Pankey gets nice catch to move ball to 33 yard line of Walker Valley and follows with nice catch down to the 15 yard line.  Two plays later, Dalton Hampton gets the 3 yard touchdown run, which ties the score 6-6 with 8:23 left in first quarter.  Cole Ruehling tacks on extra point for the 7-6 lead. Next series begins around the 33 yard line after Garrett Ramsey gets tackle on Swafford.  Walker Valley's very talented senior quarterback Tucker Pope begins his night for Mustangs.  After nice tackle by Justin Woody to force 3 and 6, Pope finds Swafford for first down.  Swafford then comes up with big catch down to the 8 yard line and with 2:02 left in first, Pope takes ball to end zone for 12-7 lead.  Kick of good and Mustangs lead 13-7 Eagles begin next possession at their 35 after kick goes out of bounds.  Drive stalls and Luke Miller pins the Mustangs deep at the 11 yard line.  First quarter ends with Mustangs up 13-7.  Pope finds Swafford for gain to 38 yard line before personal foul by Mustangs.  Pope comes up short on first down try, forcing punt. Roddy brings Walker Valley punt back to 40 yard line of Walker Valley.  Eagle drive stopped on interception of Martin, which is returned to the 48 yard line of the Eagles.  Pope and Gibson then team up for couple of nice passes, to take ball to 36 and then the 19 yard line.   Pope gets ball down to the 6 yard line before penalty pushes back to 11 yard line for first and goal.  Pope finds Denton inside the one and then Pope slips into end zone for 19-7 lead, that goes to 20-7 after Kangel Sabany extra point. Eagles began their first possession of 4th at the 29 and went three and out.  Miller's punt went out of bounds at Walker Valley's 23 yard line, with 10:49 left in 4th.  Walker Valley then turned ball over when Elsea put pressure on Pope and the pass attempt was intercepted by Amari Roddy on the Eagle 37 yard line with 9;38 left in game. Eagles went three and out as Martin could not find any completions on three attempts and Miller punted to Jonas Harness on 25 yard line of Walker Valley.   Mustangs picked up first down on the ground before Pope found Denton for a first down pass to the 37 yard line.  Eagles Drew Fisher then made huge play with sack on Pope at the 25 yard line with Johnson also applying pressure, to bring up 4th and 22.  The next thing fans saw was the football sailing very high over punter's head into endzone, where he kicked it out, leaving Eagles with the safety and a chance to get the ball back in good field position with just under 5 minutes remaining in regulation. After the free kick, Eagles began play on their 42 yard line.  Eagles used a pass and then interference penalty to move across midfield to setup Martin for a nice pass down to the Pankey on a diving catch on the home sidelines as he laid out for the catch and slide down the field.  Hampton and Martin had short runs before Martin found the end zone for the 22nd point for Eagles and Ruehling added another point to put Eagles down 28-23 with 3:11 left in game.  Now Eagles made the decision to go for on-side kick and percentages were not in their favor, but you only have to succeed once for reward. Eagles were flagged for illegal procedure on first onside kick attempt, but Ruehling was able to get the ball to bounce perfectly and Gavin Roddy was there to pick up the cameron and bounce out of bounds with the preccious cargo in tow.  Roddy bounded down the sidelines with the rock in hand and then team and fans waited for the officials to confirm Eagle possession.  Crowd and sidelines went wild with the awarding of ball to Rhea County at the 48 yard line.  Martin found Davis down to the 38 yard line and then Martin had short run to 36 for the first down with 2:52 left in game.  The Martin looked long and found Jayden Goodwin streaking down the right sideline and Goodwin fought off defender and came down with the big catch around the 8 yard line.  Dalton Hampton looked on his way to end zone but came up just short at the one.  Two plays later and with some time off the clock, Hampton found the end zone with just over a minute left in game.  Eagles' Martin added the two point conversion run and Ealges now lead 31-28, the first lead since their 7-6 lead with 8:23 in the first quarter. Eagles were now one big play from victory and Mustangs had their drive ended when Amari Roddy came up with the game sealing interception at the 41 yard line and Ealge fans were treated to a tremendous win and the Mustang fans had their hearts broken as they suffered their second brutal loss of the season, the other coming against Bradley 37-34. After the game, head coach Mark Pemberton said, "Our kids never surrendered, they kept battling and battling.  We needed something good to happen and it did with the snap over the head and then we began to steamroll from there.  That's a lot of character from our kids, as they could have very easily given up." Heroes could be found all up nad down the Eagle roster as each and every big play was necessary for the unanswered points in the fourth quarter for the big win.  Amari Roddy had two big interceptions, Gavin Roddy had the big one-side kick recovery, Cole Ruehling had the great onside kick, Martin threw some great passes and Jayden Goodwin and Jadden Pankey came up with fantastic catches.  Throw in some great blocking and protection and some big stops and you have the ingredients for a special memory for these football players and fans and one very excited reproter.  Games like these make it all worthwhile.