Rhea Continues Impressive Start Of Season, Eagles Make The Big Plays on Both Sides of the Ball
Chattanooga, TN -- On Friday 8/29/25, Rhea County traveled to Notre Dame for the second game of the season for both teams. Eagles were coming off a 10-7 win over Red Bank with late heroics and a defensive stand to win on the road. Notre Dame won 73-0 over Grace Academy with several big plays to win convincingly. Fans were not sure what to expect in this tilt. Early season results can be hard to read with differences in levels of football. So, this one clarified a little more where both teams stood. Eagles won 28-14 with several big plays and a solid defense on Notre Dame. That win pushes Rhea to 2-0 on the season and they will open their home season against Ooltewah on Friday, 9/5/25 with 7 pm kickoff. Ooltewah comes in with 1-1 record riding a roller coaster of emotion this year with 42-0 opening loss to Chattanooga Christian, followed by a 41-7 win over Chattanooga Central on Friday night.
Eagles received opening kickoff and began on their own 20 after kick went into end zone. Notre Dame stopped first 2 Eagle plays before quarterback Jaxton Schmitt got nice gain to the 29, bringing up a 4th and 1 situation. Aiden Wilkerson took the handoff and cut left and never stopped until he hit the end zone. Regretfully a penalty took that nice touchdown away, but Eagles still earned a first down at their own 42. Ford bulled his way for a first down just over midfield. Schmitt picked up 3rd first down of the drive with keeper down to 38 of Notre Dame. After picking up 4th first down of the drive at the 27, Fighting Irish stopped the Eagles on 4th down try at the 23 yard line
Notre Dame went to the air for first down at the 33, and got another on a penalty to the 43. Akeem Cox picked up his second first down catch down to the Eagles' 32-yard line on the throw from Cooper Campbell. Quarter changed to 2nd during the drive. From the 36-yard line Campbell found Dremel Green open for touchdown, but penalties offset, wiping out the touchdown. Campbell went back to the air with pass to Imryn Morris around the 14-yard line. Jacorrion Tramble grabbed the Campbell toss in the far edge of the end zone for the 8-yard touchdown with 10:35 left in 2nd quarter. Owen Maddox was successful on kick for 7-0 lead for Fighting Irish. Eagles' defense knocked down 3 passes
Maddox's kick found Austun Fugate at the 2-yard line and Fugate came right up the middle and with a couple of good blocks he was able to outrun Maddox to the end zone. Fugate tacked on the extra point with 10:14 to go in half and game tied 7-7.
Akeem Cox had a nice return from goal line to the 33-yard line. Dremel Green picked up a first down on pass at 46. Eagles' defense forced the punt from the 46 and Wilkerson downed the ball at the 6.
Mason Ford got the Eagles out the hole with 3 runs to move ball to 23. Quarterback Schmitt picked up a first down on keeper to the 30. Irish stopped Ford just short and Eagles used a good push by the offensive line as Schmitt picked up the first down at the 42 of the Eagles. Notre Dame's defense forced a kick and Eagles downed the ball at Irish 25, with 2 minutes remaining in the half.
Notre Dame came close to disaster with a couple of tipped passes that could have been pick six returns, but Eagles settled for a punt from the 25, which was downed at the Eagle's 43-yard line. Schmitt had a nice run up the middle on keeper but an Irish defender managed to knock the ball free and Notre Dame got the ball at the 21 with 43 seconds left in the half. Campbell ran the ball out of bounds on last play of half around midfield after not finding any receivers open.
Eagles went with onside kick to begin second half and Fugate recovered his own kick at midfield, picking up the ball as soon as it passed by the midfield strife and losing it for a second before coming up with the ball. Ford bulled his way down to the 43 of Notre Dame and Schmitt had picked up first down before holding penalty put the Eagles in 3rd and 11. Fugate's punt rolled out of bounds at the 28 yard line with 9:37 left in 3rd quarter.
Campbell's long pass downfield was wiped off by penalty on 3rd and 7. Irish looked to setup a screen by Eagle Rose sniffed it out and dropped back in passing lane for the interception and return to the Notre Dame 10-yard line. On the next play, Aiden Wilkerson found a lane up the middle for the touchdown with 8:37 left in third quarter. Fugate added the kick and Eagles led 14-7.
Akeem Cox took the kickoff around the 2 and had the Irish in great field position at midfield before penalty took Irish back to the 35-yard line. Irish mounted a nice drive running the ball well. Michael Woodley Campbell and Jacorrion Tramble each had nice runs as Notre Dame moved the ball to the Eagles' 25-yard line. Trimble put Irisish at first and goal with nice elevation to snatch ball away from defenders at the 11 and carried to the 8-yard line. With the ball on the 3, the snap went over the quarterbacks head and LT Donnegan came up with lose ball at the Eagle 32 yard line with 4:55 left in 3rd.
Eagles lost yardage on penalty and a tackle in backfield by Dremel Green forcing a long pass that was incomplete, bringing up punt. Fugate's punt went 48 yards and Notre Dame had the ball at their 33-yard line with 2:35. Campbell found Morris along the sideline for nice gain to Eagles' 45. Irish benefited from an interference call to move down to the 24-yard line. Another interference call moved the ball to the 15, but Kaiden Rector stepped in front of intended receiver in the endzone and brought the ball out to the 23 to stop another drive by the Irish with 29 seconds left in 3rd quarter.
Eagles moved the ball to the 35 and then Jaxton Schmitt on a designed quarterback run, made his way to the left sideline and outraced defenders for 65 yard touchdown to move the Eagles to 21-7 after the kick by Fugate with 10:57 left in game.
Cable Green brought the kickoff back to the 38-yard line. Irish moved the ball to midfield and Rhea covered the receiver in the end zone and Aiden Wilkerson came up with the leaping interception in the endzone.
Beginning at the 20 the Eagles moved up field. Mason Ford had a nice 66 yards run on the third play of drive but it was a casualty of a penalty. On the positive side, the lost touchdown gave Eli Kelly a chance to show his running ability with 4 rushes for 50 yards, most of that on a long run to the 4-yard line of Notre Dame. Eagles finished that 4 yards with touchdown run by Aiden Wilkerson and PAT by Austun Fugate to compete their scoring at 28 and Notre Dame added a 9 yard rushing TD and Maddox kick for their final points with 2 minutes to go.
Defense - As a defense we have generated 6 takeaways in 2 games (5 INT - 1 FF)
Tristyan Odum - 9 solo - 3 asst - 1 PBU
Interceptions by:; Aiden Wilkerson (Sr) Kaiden Rector (Sr) Tyler Garrison(Jr)
Offense-
Mason Ford - 15 car - 118yds
Jaxton Schmitt - 13 car - 132 yds - 1 TD - 1 Fumble
Aiden Wilkerson - 4 car - 78 yds - 2 TD
Special Teams -
Austun Fugate 98 yd kickoff ret for TD
| # | Player | Car | Yds | Avg | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jaxton Schmitt (Jr) | 14 | 110 | 7.9 | 1 |
| 2 | Aiden Wilkerson (Sr) | 3 | 13 | 4.3 | 2 |
| 3 | Tristyan Odum (Jr) | 1 | -3 | -3.0 | 0 |
| 5 | Mason Ford (Sr) | 16 | 65 | 4.1 | 0 |
| 11 | Austun Fugate (Jr) | 2 | -1 | -0.5 | 0 |
| 31 | Eli Kelly (Jr) | 4 | 50 | 12.5 | 0 |
| Team Totals | 40 | 234 | 5.9 | 3 |
| # | Athlete Name | Comp | Att | Yds | TD | Int |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jaxton Schmitt (Jr) | 3 | 9 | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| # | Name | Rec | Yds | Avg | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Mason Ford (Sr) | 2 | 7 | 3.5 | 0 |
| 6 | Dyllis Devaney (So) | 1 | 5 | 5.0 | 0 |
| Team | Totals | 3 | 12 | 4.0 | 0 |
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Cooper Campbell (Sr) led Irish with 249 yards total offense on 173 passing and 76 rushing. Freshman Michael Woodley (Fr) led running backs with 67 yards rushing on 6 rushes. Leading Notre Dame in receiving were Sophomore Akeem Cox 29 yards, Sophomore Imry Morris 69 yards and Junior Jocarrion nTramble 69 yards. Sophomore Briggs Hill led Notre Dame with 8 tackles
Joccarion Tramble scored a touchdown receiving. Cooper Campbell had a touchdown rushing and Kicker Owen Maddox had 2 extra points.