Rhea County High School Head Coach Taylor Harvey talks to team after winning region title against Walker Valley on 10/31/25.(Photo:GaryBolden)
Schmitt Threads Winning TD Pass Between Defenders to Wilkerson
Calhoun, TN - 10/31/25 -- Rhea County won the Region Championship on Friday night with last second touchdown pass from Jaxton Schmitt to Aiden Wilkerson, as the threaded the ball between two Walker Valley defenders as horn sounded to end the game. Rhea County finishes the regular season with 9-1 record overall and 5-1 record in region and end season in tie with Walker Valley, who also finished 5-1 in regions, but lost head-to-head tiebreaker to give Rhea the crown. This was an instant classic and one than fans will not forget anytime soon. It was not a perfect game in any sense, but a defensive battle for most of the game.
Eagles began second half on defense and Rhea County got the first turnover of the night with Austun Fugate picking off the deflected pas and returning to the 26 yard-line of Walker Valley.Fugate ended the 0-0 tie with a 25-yard field goal with 7:27 left in the third quarter. The Mustangs began their possession inside their 20 and Cunningham had a couple of nice runs to move the Mustangs into Eagles' territory at the 36 yard-line. Cunningham picked up another first down for the Mustangs at the 12 yard-line. After running the ball into scoring position, Mustangs tried a couple of passes that were covered well by Eagles and they settled for a tying field goal by kicker Christ Malik to tie the score 3-3 with 1:35 left in the 3rd quarter.
That tie lasted for 17 seconds as Austun Fugate took the kickoff back for 90 yards the endzone for the 10-3 lead for Eagles with 1:18 left in 3rd quarter. Fugate took the ball on the right side, moved to the center as he ran through several defenders before moving to left sideline and on to the endzone. Fugate then made the kick for 10-3 lead for the Eagles.
Mustangs began next drive at their 35 yard-line after kickoff bounced out of bounds. Cunningham moved the ball past midfield. Eli Evans dropped the running back to stop the Mustangs' drive with the 5 yard loss to force a punt. Wilkerson called for fair catch at the 26 yard-line of Rhea County with 11:10 left in the 3rd quarter. Mason Ford picked up a first down at the 38 yard-line, but drive stalled and Eagles punted, giving Mustangs the ball in great field position at the 48 yard-line. Reviver Roman Eulo picked up another first down as he lined up at running back and gained down to the 21 yard-line, but a hold on next play moved the Mustangs back. Cunningham got 12 yards to erase the penalty yards. With just over 5 minutes remaining in game, Rhea had stopped the Mustangs with fumble recovery as the Eagles had one defender between the runner and the endzone, but Laterrius Donegan made the open field tackle, forcing the fumble with Wyatt Mangefrida recovering the ball to the Eagles inside their 10 yard-line.
Eagles fumbled the ball a few plays later on a bad pitch, giving Walker another chance to even the score with 2:12 left in game and ball on Eagles; 19 yard-line.
Walker kept the ball on the ground and Eagles made the yards hard, but eventually, Walker Valley found the endzone on Cason Cunningham's short run to pull within 1 point of tying the game. The kick by Christopher Malick tied the game at 10-10 with 34.4 seconds left in the game and an overtime might be in the cards.
Eagles received the short kickoff and began their possession at their own 34-yard line. Eagles earned a first down with 18.4 seconds remaining at 47 yard-line Fugate hauled in a Schmitt pass to move past midfield. A couple of runs and a completed pass later, the Eagles were sitting on the 40 yard-line with 6.7 seconds and time for one last play, 40 yards from the endzone. Jaxton Schmitt dropped back and with defenders closing in, he launched the high arcing pass toward the middle of the field at the endzone. Wilkerson began his route on the right side of the formation and veered toward that exact spot and two Walker Valley defenders, one on each side of Wilkerson could not stop the pass from finding its intended target and as the horn sounded, the Eagles had the win and a chance for the region championship. That chance became a reality a few minutes later when McMinn County came back from 22 point deficit against East Hamilton for the 50-48 win.
Walker Valley gained the other home region tournament game, that was guaranteed before the night began as worst case scenario. McMinn finished 3rd and East Hamilton finished 4th with 3-2 records, McMinn getting the head-to-head tiebreaker.
Zeke Romero was great on defense with 16 solo and 5 assisted tackles. L.T. Donegan had big hit for force fumble while getting 6 solo and 1 assisted tackles. Wyatt Mangefrida had fumble recovery, 9 solo tackles and 4 assisted tackles. Landon Hallman had 9 solo, 4 assisted tackles and one big hit. Austun Fugate had big interception, 9 solo and 1 assisted tackles. Defense was good. Gave up some yards, but made big plays when necessary.
On offense, stats not great, but enough. Schmitt went 6 for 11 for 63 yards and 1 big touchdown. Mason Ford led the way with 58 yards on 14 carries and Schmitt had 88 yards on 8 carries. Aiden Wilkerson with 3 catches for 42 yards and 1 touchdown.
Special Notes: Jaxton Schmitt went over 1,000 yards passing for the year. Austun Fugate with 7 interceptions is top 3 in state for that stat. Wyatt Mangefrida went over 100 tackles for the year. Rhea County's defense turned over Walker Valley on downs 3 times in the game. Rhea began this year at Red Bank with a defensive battle where Eagles lost the stat battle, but not the scoreboard battle, the one that county most. Special congrats to the 9-1 Region Champs for 2025.
| Name | SOLO | ASST | TFL | Intercept | FF/FR | Big Hit |
| Zeke Romero | 16 | 5 | 1 | |||
| Eagle Rose | 1 | 1 | ||||
| LT Donegan | 6 | 1 | 1 FF | 1 | ||
| Tristyan Odum | 11 | 2 | ||||
| Wyatt Mangefrida | 9 | 4 | 1 FR | |||
| Austun Fugate | 9 | 2 | 1 | |||
| Gage Devany | ||||||
| Rett Robertson | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Tucker bradshaw | 3 | 2 | ||||
| Jackson Skiles | 2 | 2 | 1 | |||
| Landon Hallman | 9 | 4 | 1 | |||
| Eli Evans | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Player | Game | Comp | Attempts | yards | touchdown | interception |
| J.SCHMITT | WALKER VALLEY | 6 | 11 | 63 | 1 | 0 |
| Player | ||||||
| RUSHING | Carries | YARDS | TD | |||
| Walker Valley | FORD | 14 | 38 | |||
| WILKERSON | 2 | 5 | ||||
| SCHMITT | 8 | 88 | ||||
| RECEIVING | CATCHES | YARDS | TD | |||
| Walker Valley | FUGATE | 2 | 12 | |||
| WILKERSON | 3 | 42 | 1 |