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Scores and Photos of Friday night high school football - Sept. 18
The modest offensive numbers were irrelevant. The way Ooltewah's defense, especially up front, played Friday night, all the offense had to do was simply run some time off the clock and not give Rhea County any help with turnovers.
On the shoulders of that stout defense, which accounted for nine points, the eighth-ranked Owls defeated fourth-ranked and Region 4-5A foe Rhea County 16-0.
"We did a nice job of stopping their run game," Ooltewah coach Mac Bryan said. "Once we forced them to start throwing it, that's not what they're designed to do. I thought we controlled things up front most of the game, and that was really big."
Despite rushing for just 25 yards, and not picking up a first down on the ground, and finishing with 146 yards of total offense, Ooltewah (4-1, 1-0) did not turn the ball over and capitalized on a short field once in the first half to put the game away.
Ooltewah held the visitors to 36 rushing yards on 42 carries, sacking Eagles quarterback Daniel Dotson six times and racking up seven other plays for negative yardage. It was the first time the Eagles have been shut out since Oct. 4, 2011, and they had not scored fewer than 21 points in nearly three full seasons.
Rhea County (3-2, 1-1) drove inside the Owls' 30-yard line four times, including twice inside the 20, but came up empty.
On the Eagles' opening series they drove to the Ooltewah 23 before Owls defensive back A.J. Diggs stripped the ball and took it 77 yards for a momentum-shifting touchdown, the fourth score by the defense this season.
"My job was to set the edge, and I saw them looking like they were going to pitch the ball, so I just stepped in front and took it," Diggs said. "I just kept running and didn't look back after that. We knew we had to come out as a defense and set the tone early because we knew how good they were.
"We didn't like what they did to us last year (a 47-14 Rhea win in the second round of the state playoffs). It feels great to beat them like this and look up there and see that zero on their side of the scoreboard."
After the teams traded punts on the next four series of the first half, Rhea put together an impressive drive, moving from its 16 to the Owls' 18. But on fourth-and-5, Dotson's pass into the end zone was intercepted by Elijah Wigfall.
Defense again set up the next set of points when a bad snap on a fake punt attempt by Rhea County rolled back 30 yards and was recovered by the Owls at the Eagles' 4. Two runs got the Owls to the goal line, but Rhea's defense didn't allow an inch on the next two snaps, giving the ball back to its offense, but with the nose almost touching the goal line.
Three plays later, Ooltewah's Tyler Reid was waiting on Dylan Smith just after he took the handoff, dropping him for a safety with 2:11 left before halftime.
The ensuing free kick gave Ooltewah the ball at the Rhea 46, and the Owls covered that ground all through the air, with London Elrod completing five of seven passes, capped with his 10-yard TD toss to Kobe Jones with just 13 seconds to go before the break.
Elrod finished with 121 passing yards.
The Owls nearly added a second defensive touchdown in the second half, but Gene Myers' fumble return for a score was called back by a penalty.
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293.