Rhea County's football team was not quite itself at the halftime buzzer of Friday night's Region 4-5A game - staring at six points on its side of the scoreboard with a one-point deficit to an injury-plagued Soddy-Daisy team.
A simple message in the locker room was all the Eagles needed to hear on their way to a 37-7 win on the Trojans' turf.
"Physicality," Rhea County coach Mark Pemberton said of his talk with the players. "We told them they needed to be more physical, and that included our offensive line, our tight ends and our running backs. We didn't change anything scheme-wise."
Rhea County (6-2, 4-0) responded by scoring on the opening drive of the second half on the way to 16 points in the third quarter and 15 in the fourth. It was a much different feel than a stagnant first half that yielded four turnovers and a lone touchdown run by Mason Stephenson.
A missed extra point made it 7-6, thanks to a 10-yard run by Soddy-Daisy quarterback Ty Boeck in the first quarter.
"It was all defense," Trojans coach Justin Barnes said. "We couldn't take advantage of turnovers. Our defense did a great job holding them to six points, which is difficult to do, but we couldn't put points on the board. It could have been 21- or 28-6, but we didn't take advantage."
Soddy-Daisy (2-6, 1-4) had to rally around another injured teammate to hold a lead, as a defensive starter went down on the opening kickoff.
"They've done a great job of being the next guy up," Barnes said. "We've had to plug in more sophomores here and there. It's been the story of our year."
Rhea County took control of the second half with a stout performance on the ground. Four players had at least 80 yards, with Stephenson and Christian Simon going over the century mark.
Cody Bice opened the scoring with an 18-yard run and a two-point conversion run. Eddie Davis followed with a 22-yard score, and another Bice conversion made it 14-7 with 1:59 to play in the third quarter. Simon and Davis got in from 7 and 6 yards, respectively, to wrap up the scoring in the fourth quarter.
The Eagles took hold of the clock with long, punishing possessions, and the defense, which held its ground the whole night, forced a fumble and two interceptions in the second half.
"Offense wins games, and defense wins championships," Pemberton said. "Our defense has been good all year, and we've got to be able to run the ball. When we play good defense and run the ball, we are able to limit a team's possession and control the game. That's been our game plan all year."
Rhea County's rushing quartet of Bice, Stephenson, Simon and Davis finished with 381 of the team's 400 total yards on offense.
Contact Idris Garcia at sports@timesfreepress.com