Rhea County Football Pulls Away from Lakeway in Second Half
9/19/25 -- Evensville, TN -- Rhea County High School Football hosted Lakeway Christian on homecoming night and won 63-27. First year coach, Greg Vandagriff had was at Prince Avenue Christian where his record was 107-16 in nine seasons, with state titles in 2020, 2022 and 2023.
Mason Ford received opening kickoff and returned ball to the 40-yard line. Quarterback Jaxton Schmitt found Aiden Wilkerson down the sidelines on third down for first down at the 28 of the Lions. Mason Ford ran for 7 yards; It was later Jaxton Schmitt with the first down run on 4th down. From the 20, Schmitt found Aiden Wilkerson for the passing touchdown with 8;08 left in quarter. Austun Fugate's kick gave Eagles 7-0 lead.
Lakeway began their initial series at their own 20-yard line after the kick. Wyatt Mangefrida came up with a tackle for loss on quarterback to move the Lions back to their19 yard line. Mangefrida also made the next tackle on third down to force a punt for the Lions with 6:44 left in quarter. Punt returner Aiden Wilkerson received the punt around his own 30 and moved left to right toward the Rhea County sideline and outraced the defenders to the sidelines and then made nice cut at the 30 on his way to the endzone for Eagles' second score of the game with 6:22 left in quarter. Fugate added a kick for 14-0 lead.
Lakeway received the kickoff and Fugate found the endzone for the touchback and Lions began play on their own 20. Lakeway had a freshman quarterback under center, Stone Underwood. Sophomore Meade Coston was single running back.
Lakeway picked up first down on the ground at the 30. Lions then moved to air game and a pass interference penalty moved the ball to the Eagle 45-yard line. A completed pass took the Lions across midfield. Coston ran for another first down at the 38 of the Eagles. Underwood found Haiden Harder for another first down, moving ball down to the Eagles' 34. Sophomore Coston earned another first down at the 5-yard line. Maki Bell put the Lions on the scoreboard with short run and Josh Wilson was successful on kick for 14-7 Eagle lead.
Trystan Odum returned the kickoff to the 43-yard line of Rhea County. On third play of drive, quarterback Jaxton Schmitt faked to Ford and kept the ball, and raced down the far sideline for 51 yards for the 3rd touchdown on the night for Rhea County. Fugate's extra point gave Eagles 21-7 lead with 11:49 left in 2nd quarter.
Fugate's deep kick and special teams defense put the Lions at their own 17-yard line. Lions used the legs of Coston to move up the field, picking up four first downs to moved ball to the Eagles' 39-yard line. Trystum Odom made nice tackle for loss on rubbing back to slow down the drive and a flag put Lakeway back to their own 46. On a third and 26 Underwood flipped ball out to Mason Payne for nice pass play for 34 yards. Late in the drive quarterback Underwood made nice fake to running back and walked into end zone for Lions' second touchdown of game with 6:16 left in half. PAT was good for 21 to 14 score.
Fugate had nice pooch punt to the 8-yard line but P.K. Hodari made nice cut and it was Fugate making tackle but flag moved the ball back to 5-yard line. Coston moved the ball up to the 46 on nice run. Harder made nice reception despite big hit by Kaiden Rector to move ball down to Eagles' 33. Dilley found some room on the sideline and moved the ball to the Eagles' 1 yard line. After flag moved ball back 5 yards, Lions came back with Coston touchdown run from 3 yards out to cut lead to 21-20 with 2:53 left in half. A bad snap on PAT allowed Odum to make tackle to keep the score at 21-20.
Donegan brought the short kick up to the 35-yard line for the Eagles. Lakeway came up with a fumble with 57 seconds left in the half. Zeke Romero stepped in from of the pass and went for 59-yard interceptions return for a touchdown to give Eagles some momentum going into halftime. Fugate's kick was good for 28-20 lead.
A couple of nice pass plays moved the ball into Eagles' territory before Rhett Robertson put a 10 yard sack on Underwood to end the half.
Lakeway returned second half kickoff to the 36. Eagle Rose made huge hit on running back as he received the ball for 5-yard loss. In that same series several Eagle defenders meet the ball carrier in the backfield on a 4th down play to turn the ball over the Eagles with 10:06 remaining in third quarter at the Lakeway 43 yard line.
Eagles began with short pass into the flats and Aiden Wilkerson took the ball down to the 38 and then Mason Ford broke a tackle at the 20 and was forced out at the 1-yard line. Wilkerson took the direct snap and scored the touchdown for 35-20 lead after the Fugate extra point kick with 9:38 remaining in third quarter.
Landon Hallman made nice tackle on the return at the Lakeway 23-yard line. Kaiden Rector stopped the drive with an interception. Mason Ford took the pitch and outraced the defenders to the near end zone for an Eagles' touchdown with 8:26 on the 3rd quarter clock. Fugate's kick moved the Eagles to 42-20 lead.
Lakeway began next series at their own 18. Rhett Robertson had nice tackle in backfield for the Eagles' defense to put Lions in a passing situation. On next play L.T. Donegan caught the overthrow for an interception and returned ball to the Lions 42. Schmitt went to the air and hooked up with Kaiden Rector for the 42-yard touchdown pass play. Fugate added the extra point for 48-20 lead.
On the next Lakeway possession, Gage Devaney came up with interception to stop the drive by Lions on the Lions' 46-yard line. From there it was time to crank up the Ford and ride to the end zone. Ford carried the ball five times with last carry making the end zone for the Eagles' to move the score to 63-20.
Lakeway Christian scored on their next series with 30 yard pass to Blake Escola and kick pulled the Lions within 56-27.
Aiden Wilkerson picked up the bouncing ball on the kickoff and essentially raced up the middle of defenders all the way to the end zone for the 75-yard touchdown. Kick was good for the final score of 63-27.
A few of the highlights for the game:
Defense:
Wyatt Mangefrida : 14 solo - 5 asst
Eli Evans: 10 solo - 2 asst
Zeke Romero , Kaiden Rector, LT Donegan, Gage Devaney - 1 INT each (Zeke INT for TD)
Rhett Robertson and Eagle Rose had tackle for loss.
Offense:
Jaxton Schmitt: 5/8 113 yards 2 TD passing, 5 car 48 yards 1 TD rushing
Mason Ford: 14 car 127 yards 2 TD
Aiden Wilkerson had a rushing TD, a KOR for TD, and Punt ret for TD.
Few intervview question with RCHS head coach Taylor Harvey:
Tremendous change of team play second half. Did you do anything special to motivate the team at halftime?
Lakeway was doing some unbalanced sets that our guys were not adjusting to very well in the 2nd quarter and we got it fixed at halftime. They knew how important it was to come back out and play fast to get back in the groove we were in early in the game.
Aiden Wilkerson scored via rush, pass, punt return and kickoff return. Have you been involved in game, where that happened before?
No, Aiden is a special kid for sure. I couldn't be more proud of the season he is having to date. He is a great player for us and we have to continue to find ways to get him touches in all aspects of the game.
Mason Ford on track for another 1000-yard season. How has Mason improved this season or is it just being 100% healthy.
He is bigger and stronger this year. He also seems much more confident in our scheme and understands how to attack defenses a little cleaner this year.
Interceptions all over the field. What do you attribute the improved secondary play this season?
They are our veteran group and have all played quite a bit of football. Those guys have taken what coach Ashby gives them for gameplan each week and totally bought into it. They do a great job of just doing what they are coached to do and have made some big time plays so far. There is a lot of confidence in that group right now.
Wyatt Mangefrida, Zeke Romero, L.T. Donegan, and Gage Devaney are underclassmen who have really stepped up, seemingly getting better every game. Any other underclassmen, who have really stepped up their game this year?
They are all playing well at this point. Some other names that you will see as the season moves on will be: 25 Gavin Miller, 26 Caleb Chance, 28 Rorak Moody, 19 Rett Robertson, 46 Bentlee Fullam