COALMON, Tenn. — In the battle of "the mountains" Friday night, Signal Mountain's Eagles prevailed over the Grundy County Yellow Jackets 43-19 in a District 7 matchup.
The teams were in a dogfight through the first half with Signal leading 16-13 at the break. Depth and size gave the Eagles the push they needed in the second half.
"We made a lot of turnovers in the first half, field position wise," Eagles coach Bill Price said. "We gave up two big plays. I think in the second half we had a little bit more depth than they had and our kids played a little bit better.
"It was a district game and you've got to win. I give them a lot of credit the first half for playing awful hard."
The Eagles (2-3, 2-0) chewed up 413 yards on the ground on 48 attempts with James McClean plowing through defenders for 183 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries. Reese Phillips completed nine of 18 passes for 122 yards. The visitors totaled 535 yards of offense as the Jackets (2-3, 1-1) struggled to stop them once they got going.
The passing attack of Josh Rhea and Hayden Holland kept the Yellow Jackets in the game early. Rhea completed 12 of 25 passes for 193 yards and three TDs to Holland, who caught nine throws for 169 yards.
"Depth took over. We've been trying to prepare for that all week, because that's what all the coaches I talked to talked about," Grundy coach Nick Bryant said. "They just have so many players and we have so few that play with experience, it makes it tough in games like this. We've got to get the younger kids in more, and we've got to start tackling better."
Contact David Lowrie at sports@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6273.
