COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- Rhea County's impressive season start continues.
After finishing 3-17 during the 2011 and '12 seasons, the Golden Eagles took control of the District 6-AAA race Friday night, pulling away for a 27-3 victory over Cookeville at Eddie Watson Stadium.
Jacob York ran for two touchdowns, and Rhea County (5-1, 3-0) used a big defensive play from Bryce Keylon to take the momentum in what had been a defensive struggle.
"I told the kids, 'That's a great feeling to win this one because that's a good football team,'" first-year Rhea coach Mark Pemberton said. "[Cookeville] Coach [Jimmy] Maynord and his staff do a great job here. I've known him for years, and he's done a great job for years. It's always hard to beat his teams."
Keylon helped Rhea County take control when he picked off a Nick Nash pass and returned it untouched for a touchdown to make it 14-3 with 3:01 left in the third quarter.
"He made a read on a slant -- he made a beautiful read on it," Pemberton said. "We were actually out of position on the other side of the field, so I'm glad he threw it over here. But that was a great play by Bryce. It sort of gave us some breathing room. We could take a deep breath, and after that we did a really good job of executing and put them away."
The Golden Eagles pulled away as York and Demitrius Patterson reeled off chunks of yardage in their wing-T offense.
York punched in a 5-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter and finished with 91 yards on 12 carries before leaving in the fourth quarter with an apparent leg injury.
Austin Dodson added an exclamation point with 5:04 left in the game, when he passed to Patterson over the top of the Cookeville defense for a 30-yard touchdown on third-and-7 to make it 27-3.
The Golden Eagles limited the Cavaliers to 104 yards of offense, including a mere 16 in the second half.
Down 7-0 midway through the second quarter, Cookeville (5-2, 2-1) put together its best drive of the first half on the legs of Cameron Germenis, who ran five times in a span of six plays for 60 yards to the Rhea 8. But the Eagles defense tightened up, and a fumbled snap on third down led to a 31-yard field goal by Spencer Wright that just sneaked over the crossbar to make it 7-3 at halftime.
Germenis finished with 21 carries for 96 yards.
The Cavaliers limited the Golden Eagles for the most part in the first half, except for a short pass from Dodson to tight end Taylor Jenkins in the flat that turned into an 83-yard gain to the Cookeville 1. Two plays later, York barreled his way for a 2-yard touchdown with 5:56 left in the first half.
Cookeville appeared to be set up in good position for a score early in the second quarter after a bad punt gave the hosts the ball at the Eagles' 33, but Rhea County snuffed out a Desmond Pincheon reverse on second down, and Cookeville eventually punted to the Rhea 5 to set up the Dodson-to-Jenkins connection.
Dodson finished 5-of-11 passing for 137 yards. Patterson added 75 rushing yards on 14 carries and caught two passes for 35 yards.