Rhea County and East Hamilton Bring Identical 5-0 Records to Big Region Game

Evensville, TN - 9/26/25 -- In a huge game for Region seeding, East Hamilton brings a high-powered offense(43 points per game) into Eagles' Bill Horton Stadium on Friday night at 7 pm. Rhea County is currently 2-0 in 5A Region 3 and East Hamilton is 1-0. Rhea averages 34 points per game and averages giving up 12 points per game while East Hamilton gives up around 15 points per game. Walker Valley is also unbeaten in Region play at 2-0. Schedule strength appears to favor Rhea. Tennessee Class 5A High School Football Computer Rankings show Rhea as 3rd rank 5 A team in Tennessee and East Hamilton as 4th, so they are ranked closely and McMinn and Walker Valley are both ranked in top 10, both teams Rhea and East Hamilton have yet to play.

Seniors Jaden Haywood and QB Wyatt Miller(133.5 quarterback rating) are top of the top performers for the Hurricanes on offense with 770 yards passing by Miller and 593 yards rushing by Haywood. Haywood has scored 18 touchdowns on the season. Hurricanes have 3 receivers with over 160 yards receiving and they are threats to go long. Receivers of note are Heathington, Maddox and Haywood, all seniors and each with 169 yards or more receiving and 5 touchdowns between them.

On defense, Jesiah Heathington is averaging 8 tackles per game followed by Grayson Maddox with 7. Grayson Maddox and Jayden Haywood each have 3 interceptions, and Moddox has caused 2 fumbles. Andrews Little has 11 quarterback hurries, so look for him as focus of offensive line for Rhea.

Characterized by head coach Aaron Nance as a "young athletic team" in City Scope Football Edition, this team comes off a 9-4 2024-25 campaign in which they finished 4-1 in Region play and defeated Karns and Lenoir City easily in playoffs before falling to powerhouse Oak Ridge 30-6, who went on to lose to the unbeaten 15-0 Sevier County state champion. East Hamilton does own a win last season over Rhea County 20-7, but Eagles did pull off a dramatic 29-28 win the season before with Ethan Davis scoring the go-a-head touchdown with less than a minute to go for the win.

Rhea brings an improving young core mixed with veterans who have led this team to an unbeaten season. Mason Ford is averaging 120 yards rushing per game and Aiden Wilkerson has 11 touchdowns overall with 8 rushing. Jaxton Schmitt has gone 31 of 45 for 354 yards and no interceptions, while throwing 3 touchdown passes. On defense Wyatt Magnefrida, Tristan Odum, Eli Evans and Zeke Romero lead the Eagles in tackling with 50, 38.5, 35 and 32 total tackles. Austun Fugate has been very good in kicking and punting for the Eagles.