Three Rhea County Senior Football Captains, 32 Ethan Davis, 0 Hunter Crowe and 99 Mo Shirley meet at Midfield vs Lenoir City.(Photo:GaryBolden)

Lenoir City Wins Playoff Game 31-13

Lenoir City, TN - 11/3/23

Rhea County finished the season with a 31-13 loss in first round of the playoffs vs Lenoir City at Lenoir City High School. Eagles received the opening kickoff and punted in their first possession. Penalties pushed the Panthers back inside their 10 and Lenoir setup for a punt from the 21 with 4th and 9 situations. The short man on punting team received the ball and ran for the first down at their 27. A few plays later Panther quarterback found a seam up the middle and ran for 38 yards down to the Eagle's 12-yard line. A few plays later quarterback Trey Wilhite scored on a 7-yard run. Alex Garica was good on extra point to move Lenoir City to 7-0 lead with 1:53 left in first quarter. Eagles went 3-and-out before Lenoir City began at their 24 after the punt. On the first play of the possession, Wilhite appeared to being toing left, but saw a hole in the middle and streaked through that hole and on to the end zone for a touchdown and Panthers took 14-0 lead after Garcia kick with 11:37 left in 2nd quarter.

Eagles struck quickly on next possession with Ethan Davis passing 65 yards to Aiden Wilkerson for a touchdown on the first play of their possession. Austin Fugate made the kick and Eagles trailed 14-7 with 11:15 left n 2nd quarter. Lenoir City was forced to punt on next series, giving the Eagles the ball on their 45 yard line. Eagles also punted and Lenoir City began possession on their 20. Lenoir City went to the air on the drive with a couple of big gainers before Wilhite went back to pass, but saw an opening and ran 32 yards for their third touchdown. Garcia mad the kick and Lenoir City enjoyed a 21-7 lead with 3:04 left in first half. Alex Garcia added on to the lead with a 29-yard field goal as halftime horn sounded to end a drive that began at their 7 yard line after good punt by Fugate.

Lenoir City received the second-half kickoff and drove down to the Eagle 20, but Eagles forced a turnover-on-downs to stop the drive and stay in the game. Teams traded punts and Eagles began possession at their 25 yard line. With 5:54 left in game the Eagles trimmed the lead to 24-13 with Mason Ford 2-yard touchdown run, but blocked kick left the score at 24-13. With 1:52 Trey Wilhite scored his 4th touchdown of the game to end the scoring at 31-13 with 1;52 left in game.

Tree Wilhite ran the ball 35 times for 288 yards and 4 touchdowns, while completing 7 of 15 passes for 120 yards. Aiden Wilkerson was the Eagle top performer with 6 catches for 130 yards and one touchdown. Ethan Davis and Aiden Wilkerson connected for the other touchdown for the Eagles.

Hunter Crowe had 15 tackles to lead the Eagles and Ethan Davis and Zander Yeager supported Hunter with 10 and 9 tackles respectively. With the loss the Eagles finish the season 5-6 on the year.

Seven Seniors played their last game for Rhea County. Hunter Crowe, Ethan Davis, Dawson Mickel, Benice Rasnake, Maurice Shirley, Ethan Robinson, Emilio Hernandez.