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Rhea County’s late rally stuns Walker Valley

Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / Walker County quarterback Tucker Pope (10) scores his second touchdown. The Walker Valley Mustangs visited the Rhea County Golden Eagles in TSSAA football action on September 4, 2020.
Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / Walker County quarterback Tucker Pope (10) scores his second touchdown. The Walker Valley Mustangs visited the Rhea County Golden Eagles in TSSAA football action on September 4, 2020. Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / Walker County quarterback Tucker Pope (10) scores his second touchdown. The Walker Valley Mustangs visited the Rhea County Golden Eagles in TSSAA football action on September 4, 2020.

By Gene Henley 3 min read

EVENSVILLE, Tenn. – For more than three quarters of football on Friday night, little went in favor of Rhea County.

In the fourth quarter of the matchup with visiting Walker Valley, very little went wrong for the Eagles.

Rhea scored 17 points in the final 5:05 to earn an improbable 31-28 victory over the Mustangs in the Region 4-5A opener for both teams and improve to 3-0, with Dalton Hampton scoring the difference-making touchdown with a minute to play.

Coach Mark Pemberton told his team after the game it was the “best rally he’d ever been a part of.”

“We had a whole team that kept battling,” he said. “They never surrendered. They could have easily given up, but they kept battling and found a way to win.”