Ethan Davis with one of five touchdown runs vs Coffee County on Friday night.(Photo:BillynthiaHill)
Eagles Finish Regular Season 8-2: Playoffs Begin Friday At Home Vs Campbell County, Ethan Davis Sets Record
10/29/21
Evensville, Tn -- Rhea County Seniors were honored before the final regular season game on October 29, 2021 and Eagles made second half surge to push 21-14 game to 42-21 final. Seniors of the football, cheerleader squad, band and JROTC were honored in short ceremony before game. Coffee County came in with four game winning streak and Eagles were fresh off a big win vs Bradley. Eagles record stood at 7-2 before game and Red Raiders record stood at 5-4 and they were second in 6A Region 3 District with 2-2 record. Eagles were guaranteed a home game, which would be against Campbell County with their first-place finish in 5A Region 4. Ethan Davis moved to first-place in the Eagle record book with his 23 overall touchdowns, moving past Alonzo Banks(22 tds) for overall and tying Banks for rushing touchdowns with 21.
Football seniors for the Eagles were Sir Alloway, Connor Bishop, Austin Brackett, Samuel Burdette, Austin Curtright, Jeffery Cross, Braden Edwards, Jaylee Elsea, Drew Fisher, Hunter Lemons, Jadden Pankey, Raul Patel, Garrett Ramsey, Travis Richie, Gavin Roddy, and Justin Woody. Captains for the game included Sam Burdette, Jeffery Cross, Connor Bishop and Drew Fisher, all seniors.
Eagles won toss and received a short kick. Quarterback Kaleb Martin]s 20-yard run and Ethan Davis' 29-yard run setup the Eagles before Davis found the end zone from six yard out. Cole Ruehling' extra point kick put Eagles up 7-0 with 9:41 left in first quarter. After stopping the Red Raiders on three plays, the Eagles returned short punt to Coffee County's 44-yard line. Eagles drive was seemingly headed for end zone, but Davis was stripped at the 8-yard line and Crowe was unable to gather the ball in before it rolled through the end zone, resulting in touchback and giving possession to Coffee County with 7:08 left in first quarter.
Eagles forced another three-and-out and took over at their own 15 after punt. From there Odell, Martin and Davis had nice runs to move the ball to midfield and Ethan Davis broke through the line and raced 50 yards for the second touchdown of game for Davis with blocking by Drew Massengill and the Eagles for the 14-0 lead after Ruehling kick with 1:53 left in quarter.
Red Raiders finally got offense going on next drive as they drove down for a touchdown, with several passes being the key to the drive and Shemwell found Travis Martin for the 14-yard touchdown pass. The kick was no good and score remained at 14-6 with 9:30 left in second quarter.
Eagles began next drive on their 40-yard line after kick went out of bounds. Martin took a loss on second play of the drive with 12-yard loss. Eagles were forced to punt and Red Raiders took possession on their own 32-yard line. Heaton had nice run on a delayed handoff to the Eagle 49-yard line. Walker had nice reception to take the ball to Eagle 34-yard line. Shemwell earned another first down on a keeper down inside the 20 before finding Martin alone in the end zone for second touchdown of the night for Red Raiders. Heaton gathered in the 2-point conversion pass and with 4:48 the score was tied 14-14.
Eagles began next drive on their 20. Mayberry had first down pickup out to 37-yard line. Martin then had a nice gain across midfield called back due to penalty on Eagles(block in back), but still gained first down on the play. Davis then went to work, picking up two consecutive first downs to the 30-yard line. On first play from 30, Davis went right, headed down sidelines, made nice cut back to inside and cruised down the sidelines to score the third touchdown of night for Eagles and for Davis. Ruehling's successful kick put Eagles up 21-14 with 1:39 left until halftime.
Coffee County Central began possession at their 17. The moved the ball to 32 before being forced to punt. Eagles put the ball on the ground but kept possession and with 27.9 seconds they took a couple of looks downfield but though they moved the ball across midfield, their drive ended at the Red Raider 30 as half expired.
Red Raiders received second half kickoff and setup possession inside their 30. Eagles forced a three-and-out and Eagles were backed up as punt rolled inside the 13 yard-line. Mayberry had nice run with situation, 4th and 2 to keep the Eagle drive going just past mid-field. Ethan Davis had another long run down just inside the 20 to keep drive going. Davis found the end-zone a couple of plays later and Ruehling mad the kick with 2:52 to give Eagles the 28-14 lead.
Drew Fisher made the emphatic tackle near the end-zone after pushing back Red Raider runner on kickoff return. Pendergrass knocked down Shemwell's pass from the end-zone. A complete pass did still put the Eagles behind the sticks and they were force into punting situation. Pankey had nice return down to the 20 for Eagles. A couple of plays later Briley Mayberry found the end-zone from 20 yards out to push the Eagle lead to 35-14 with 1:15 left in third quarter.
Davis would add a 2-yard run with 9:09 left in fourth quarter and Red Raiders responded with a 12-yard pass from Shemwell to Martin with 1:50 left in game for the final 42-21 margin.
Eagles were able to get some good playing time for reserves in the fourth quarter and came out of the game without any significant injuries as they entered the playoff section of the season and face Campbell County in Evensville on Friday night at 7 pm.
On offense, Ethan Davis scored 5 touchdowns and Briley Mayberry scored 1 touchdown. Cole Ruehling scored 6 extra- point kicks. Davis carried ball 29 times for 256 yards. Kaleb Martin had 7 carries for 55 yards and Briley Mayberry and Hunter Crowe had 7 and 8 carries respectively for 44 and 41 yards. The team total for rushing was 401 yards in 57 carries. Eagles had 2 passes completed by Martin for 31 yards to Jadden Pankey and 19 to Ethan Davis. On defense, Sir Alloway had 10 tackles(6 solo,,1asst) to lead the team. Drew Fisher had 6 solo and 2 assists for 8 tackles and Austin Brackett had 5 solo and 3 assisted tackles for 8 total. Several Eagles had 3 tackles on the night, including Justin Woody, Rahul Patel, Garrett Ramsey, Trent Edwards, and Bryce Dupre. Rex Pendergrass and Braden Edwards had sacks in the game.
Ethan Davis had five touchdowns on the night to move his total rushing touchdowns to 21 and his receiving total for touchdowns is 2 for a total of 23 touchdowns. Ethan has scored 14 touchdowns in the last three games, an outstanding rate. He now unofficially tied with Alphonso Banks who owns the rushing record with 21 and passed Banks with overall touchdown record of 22 overall. Over the last two weeks, Davis has scored 10 touchdowns, and rushed for 284 and 252 yards. During those two weeks, Ethan has 29 carries in both games. Davis is # 6 in the state with 1482 yards rushing for the year, an average of 148.2 yards per game and 7.4 yards per carry. His 21 rushing touchdowns puts him in top 10 for state. On defense, Austin Brackett and Drew Fisher are ranked in top 60 in state in tackles. Brackett is averaging 8.5 tackles per game and Fisher is averaging 8.1 .