EVENSVILLE, Tenn. -- Baylor football coach Phil Massey called this one a team effort, especially citing the reserves who had to step up for cramping starters.
"We had some cramp issues because we're not very deep, and the backups came in and did a good job," Massey said.
However, with coaching niceties aside, Wil Austin, the senior transfer quarterback, all but put Baylor on his shoulders Thursday as the Red Raiders turned a 21-21 tie into a 35-27 victory at Rhea County. It was the season opener for both teams.
Austin wound up with 140 yards on 18 carries and completed 4 of 7 passes for another 128 yards.
"We came into the game thinking we were going to do a lot of running with him, and he did an outstanding job," Massey said. "He threw it pretty well. He protected the ball. And he did a good job of getting extra yards after the first hit. It was a good showing for him in the first game of his senior season."
There was no pass completion bigger than a fourth-quarter play-action pass on which Austin had sprinted out to his right. He lofted the ball into the outstretched arms of Tate Prater for a 42-yard gain. The play, even with a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty, took Baylor from the shadow of its own goal and propelled the Red Raiders to their tie-breaking touchdown.
"That was a great play, one that gave us back the momentum," Massey said.
That play eventually led to a 7-yard touchdown run by Adrian Harris that lifted Baylor to a 28-21 advantage with 3:26 on the clock.
Rhea scored after a long pass from Daniel Dotson that carried inside the Baylor 10. The half would've ended there, but the Red Raiders were flagged for illegal participation (too many men on the field) and the Eagles' Mason Stephenson, a workhorse all night, scored his team's first touchdown.
The Eagles scored twice in the third period. Stymied most of the night as a running back, Bice turned one of Austin's few mistakes into a touchdown, returning a tipped pass 58 yards to pull Rhea within a touchdown.
With the defense holding Baylor to just one first down in the third quarter, Rhea finally tied it on Dylan Smith's 4-yard run and Bodhi Buffenbarger's third extra point with 1:37 left.
Baylor's defense held to start the fourth and the Red Raiders then went on their lead-regaining drive. It was finished off on fullback Ryan Parker's 7-yard run.
Then, keyed by back-to-back sacks by Tyree Oliver and Henry Moore, Baylor got the ball deep in Rhea's territory. Adrian Harris' 4-yard run and the fifth PAT by Victor Ulmo stretched Baylor's lead to 35-21, and the decision to go for the last score proved prudent.
The game ended on the most unique of plays. Baylor intercepted a Dotson pass and then fumbled, with that fumble recovered in the end zone going for a touchdown for the final margin.
"I liked the way we scrapped and battled back," Rhea coach Mark Pemberton said of the 21-0 Baylor lead and his team's subsequent rally. "But we cannot start ballgames in the hole. We've got to get over that hump, but I'll put that on me."
Said Massey: "We really won it in the second half on guts. The defense came up with the stops when it had to. I challenged them before the game, talked to them about being competitors and turning setbacks into comebacks."
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.