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Score and Photos of Friday night high school football - Oct. 16
EVENSVILLE, Tenn. - If football could be considered an art form, Rhea County would have a masterpiece ready to adorn a museum wall.
The Eagles would've been hard-pressed to put together a better showing than they had Friday night, drubbing neighboring Soddy-Daisy 45-7.
The Trojans touchdown came on a first-quarter, 85-yard kickoff return by Christian Bell.
The win pushed Rhea County (5-3, 3-1) into sole possession of second place in Region 4-5A and assured the Eagles of a postseason position.
Rhea coach Mark Pemberton was answered by a boisterous "Yeaaaah!" after he asked the team, "Are we back to playing our level of football?"
Three Eagles topped the 100-yard rushing mark, and another had 100 receiving yards.
Rhea's offense was obviously clicking - 432 yards on 48 rushing attempts - but its defenders also were in fine form. The Eagles checked the Trojans' running game at 8 yards on 17 attempts and gave up just 149 total yards of offense while picking off three passes.
The fourth quarter started with a running clock, and the game ended with Eagles reserves taking a knee at the Soddy-Daisy 10-yard line.
"You like for that to happen," Pemberton said of the mercy-rule ending, "but we did it to a really good football team."
Cody Bice led all rushers with 168 yards. Dylan Smith added 126 and Mason Stephenson had 105. Bice scored the opening touchdown, and Smith and Stephenson added two TDs apiece.
"The offensive line is doing an unbelievable job, and I'm certain that the running backs would tell you the same thing," said Rhea quarterback Daniel Dotson, who completed four of five passes for 109 yards.
"You play us one-on-one and we're going to go deep on you," Pemberton said.
It appeared that Soddy-Daisy was playing one-on-one, and Rhea indeed went deep, including a 64-yard Dotson-to-Noel Patterson bomb. Patterson finished with three catches for 100 yards.
"I just throw it up and let him make plays," Dotson said.
Patterson also had a 92-yard interception return that led to a Bodhi Buffenbarger field goal.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.