Walker Valley Takes Sole Possession of 2nd in Region With Win
Taylor McCoy Crowned Homecoming Queen for 2022
9/30/22
Evensville, TN -- On a beautiful evening for football with a good-sized homecoming crowd in the stands, the Rhea County Eagles hosted Walker Valley, with 2nd place the prize. Walker came into game with 1-0 record in 5A region 4 and Eagles were 1-1. Walker came in with 2-4 record and Eagles with 1-4 record in all games. Eagles had played a rough schedule and were in every game but the Alcoa game. Walker came away with second place in region with the 25-14 win and Eagles dropped into tie with Ooltewah for the thrid place position, but own a tie-breaker with their win over Owls earlier this year. Howard Tech is sitting in 5th place in region at 0-2.
Before the game, Rhea County High School selected the 2022 HomeComing Queen Taylor McCoy! Taylor was escorted by John David Young and crowned by last year’s Queen, Hannah Brock.
Evan Schwarzl was a big difference for the Mustangs with 10 carriers for 102 yards, with a long of 33 yards. These were mostly off scrambling plays that allowed the Mustangs to make some crucial first downs on the evening. Through the air, Schwarzl hit on 14-22 for 139 yards and as usual Tucker Ownby led the Mustangs with six catches for 42 yards. On defense, Montgomery led the Mustangs with 12 tackles and Smith and Hollinsworth each had 10 tackles.
For the Eagles, Ethan Davis was again the top performer on offense with 15 carries for 106 yards and now Ethan is 121 yards from hitting the 4000-yard mark for his career. Quarterback Kaleb Martin was 5 of 10 for 66 yards on the night. On defense, Latron Alloway led both teams with 15 tackles and 2 tackles-for-loss. Keshawn Smith and Hunter Crowe had 8 and 7 tackles respectively and Trent Edwards and Maurice Shirley each had six tackles. Alloway and Dodd each had sack in the game. Scoring for the Eagles was Caleb Odell with the first touchdown and Ethan Davis with the other touchdown. Cole Ruehling was 2 for 2 in extra-point conversions and also had 2 punts for 38-yard average. Tucker Ownby had two touchdowns and Larkin Lewis had the other for Mustangs. Eli Wilson had two field goals for the Mustangs.
Eagles received the opening kick and marched downfield with combination of rushing and passing before Caleb Odell scored over the left side of the ine from 5 yards with 4;47 on the clock. Cole Ruehling kicked the extra point and Eagles led 7-0. Mustangs took the kickoff and Tucker Ownby took the ball from the 5 up to the Mustang 47 to setup Walker in good field position. Mustangs used a combination of passing and running to move the ball quickly into end zone with Larkin Lewis sneaking into corner of endzone and catching touchdown pass with 1;18 left in first quarter.
On their second possession, Eagle took ball at 20 after kick sailed into endzone. A holding penalty put the ball back on 9 yard-line. Eagles punted from their 12 yard-line. Ruehling had 43-yard punt and Walker began on their own 45. with 11:12 left in 2nd quarter. Owney had a big first down on the series on 4th and 1 play. Tucker Ownby ended the drive with 5 yard run and extra point put Mustangs up 14-7 with 7:33 left in second quarter for a 3 minute 39 second drive.
Bryson Davis took the short kickoff at the Eagle 29 to start the next drive for the Eagles. Eagles moved the ball up-field with good runs by Davis, O'Dell and Martin. Davis found the endzone with 2:15 on the clock to give the Eagles the 13-12 lead and Ruehling made kick for 14-12 lead. On the next drive for the Mustangs, Schwarl had a nice 17 yard run to get Mustangs to the Eagle 48. Walker moved the ball deep into Eagle territory and had to settle for 33 yard field goal as time ran out of the first half.
Walker got the second-half kickoff and began drive at their own 7 yard-line. Again, it was Schwarzl with a big 33-yard run to move the ball past midfield. He followed that up with couple of passes to Owenby, but Walker was looking at 4th and 5 around the Eagle 25. Schwarzl found Jones for the first down catch for a first and goal at the 10 yard-line. Keshawn Smith had a nice pass knockdown to force Mustangs to settle for field goal with 5:33 left in 3rd quarter for the 18-14 lead.
The ball took a bad bounce for the Eagles and Walker recovered the onside kick around midfield. Regretfully for the Eagles, the onside kick has not been kind. The onside kick against Anderson County earlier in the year led to their win over the Eagles. Eagles did stiffen the defense and forced a punt and took the ball at their 20 with 3;16 left on the 3rd period clock. Ethan Davis earned one first down for the Eagles at the 32, but Eagles were forced to punt three plays later. Ownby took the 33-yard punt and returned to the Eagle 35 to setup Mustangs in good position with 34 seconds left in quarter. Schwarzl had another nice run to give Mustangs a first and goal inside the 5. Ownby scored on the keeper from the 2 yard-line for 25-14 lead with 9:23 left in game.
Eagles had nice kickoff return to the 35 and needed a good drive to close the gap on the Mustangs. Martin found Massengill for a first down pass completion. Martin then found Smith for another first down completion. It was then Latron Alloway with strong run up the middle to the 10 yard-line of the Mustangs. On the next play, Eagles put the ball on the ground and Mustangs recovered at their 9 yard-line with 7:20 left in quarter. Eagles needed a stop on 3rd-and-1, but Mustangs earned a crucial first -down to keep the ball. Eagles did finally get a stop on third down, but time was getting short and Eagles received the punt at their own 15 and Davis was swarmed under before he could get a good return.
Eagles stood deep in their own territory(15 yard-line) with time short(3:32). What looked like a good pass completion was negated by quarterback being over the line of scrimmage. Martin found Massengill for a first down with 2:35 left. A penalty put Eagles back 10 yards and on 4th and 20, the Martin desperation heave was intercepted at the Eagles' 37 yard-line. Walker ran out the clock and had the 25-14 win.