Ooltewah's Rahun Freeman battles Rhea County's Zach Daoust for a loose ball during their Class 5A second-round playoff game at Rhea County High on Friday. The Eagles routed the Owls, 47-7, and advanced to the quarterfinals on a frigid night.
photo by Dennis Norwood
(This story has been updated)
EVENSVILLE, Tenn. – In a battle of unbeaten, state-ranked football powers, the Ooltewah Owls wanted to limit Rhea County’s big-play offense.
They didn’t.
The Golden Eagles broke four touchdown plays of at least 21 yards in the first half, piled up 475 rushing yard and cruised to a 47-14 rout of the Owls in the TSSAA Class 5A state playoff second-round game at Tim Horton Field on a brutally cold night.
The Eagles (12-0) advance to the quarterfinals and will play at No.
1 seed Oak Ridge (12-0) next Friday night at 7 p.m. Oak Ridge squeaked past gutty Cleveland, 10-6.
“I’m really proud of our kids,” Rhea County coach Mark Pemberton said. “They played the game plan exactly like we wanted it done. Ooltewah’s a great football team, but we did a great job defensively shutting them down.”
Ooltewah ended its superlative season at 11-1. It was the second straight loss in the second round for the Owls, who won back-to-back District 5-AAA championships.
“We just didn’t execute like we should have and they busted those big plays,” Owls coach Mac Bryan said. “This isn’t the way we wanted to end the season, but I’m proud of the kids and coaches. I certainly wish we had played better tonight.”
The Eagles got three touchdowns from Jacob York, two on runs of 41 and 21 yards in the first half when the Golden Eagles built a 27-7 lead. York’s third score was a 1-yard run in the fourth quarter that produced the final 33-point victory.
Zach Daoust scored twice, once a 35-yard pass – the Eagles threw just four times – from quarterback Daniel Dotson and a 79-yard bolt in the second period.
Dotson found paydirt on a 1-yard sneak.
Cody Bice got the other Eagles touchdown on a 3-yard run.
Big plays?
Rhea had seven of them. Seven huge rushing plays accounted for 308 yards, and York had four of them for 165 of his game-high 199 yards on the ground. His “big ones” went for 41, 79, 21 and 24 yards.
Daoust had two big plays covering 51 and 35 yards – that was the TD toss – and Bice broke off a 57-yard scamper.
Rhea County, which utilizes a punishing wing-T, run-oriented offensive scheme, finished with 436 rushing yards and six touchdowns.
Throw in 39 passing yards and the Eagles had 475 total yards.
Conversely, the Owls 296 yards of offense, 239 coming through the air on Kelvin Leon’s 26-of-42 passing. Rashun Freeman was Ooltewah’s leading receiver with eight catches for 75 yards.
“The weather didn’t affect me much at all,” said Leon, who was intercepted three times after throwing just seven in the previous 11 games. “I just felt like we weren’t in the game at all. We didn’t execute when we needed to. It really sucks to see our team go down like this.”
The Owls’ defense could not stop the Eagles, who had answered to both of Ooltewah’s touchdowns.
After Frunsez Kendricks scored on a 1-yard run to cut Rhea’s lead to 14-7 in the second quarter, the Eagles needed three plays and less than two minutes to stretch the lead to 21-7 on Daoust’s 79-yard touchdown.
In the third quarter, Ooltewah’s Rashun Freeman intercepted a Dotson pass at the Owls’ 16 and raced 84 yards for a touchdown at the 6:19 mark.
On Rhea’s first play after the ensuing kickoff by Laszlo Toser that went into the end zone, Bice broke free and rambled 57 yards to the Owls’ 23. Seven plays later Dotson capped the 80-yard drive with a 1-yard sneak and the Eagles’ lead was 33-14.
Two plays later Rhea intercepted Leon for the third time by Daoust at the Owls’ 31 and he was knocked out of bounds at the Ooltewah 3. Bice scored on the next play.
The Owls turned the ball over on downs later in the fourth quarter and the Eagles only had to cover 42 yards in six rushing plays for their final touchdown. York bulled in from the 1.
The 47 points are the most third-ranked Ooltewah gave up in a game this season.
The Owls’ previous high was 34 points in an eight-point win over Dobyns-Bennett in late September. They had given up only 38 points in their previous five games going into Friday’s showdown, the only game statewide that featured two unbeaten teams.
“We’ve done that the whole year,” Pemberton said. “I can’t say enough about our guys up front and our running backs. Everybody blocks. We’ve been riding the run game all year and we’re going to continue to ride it.”
Rhea County, which last posted an unbeaten season in 1986, got off to a fast start and never looked back, much to the delight of a crowd of about 3,500-4,000 that braved temperature in the upper 20s and a stiff wind that blew all night.
The Eagles had 158 yards of offense in the first quarter, 244 at halftime.
“It’s very hard to lose this way,” linebacker Jeremiah Jackson said. “More than anything Rhea did, this was squarely on us. It’s tough on all us seniors because we lost in the second round last year.”
Scoring Summary
Ooltewah 0 7 7 0 – 14
Rhea County 14 13 13 7 – 47
First Quarter
RC – Jacob York 41 run (Aleksander Hatlem kick), 8:57
RC – Zach Daoust 35 pass from Daniel Dotson (Hatlem kick), 0:27
Second Quarter
OOL – Frunsez Kendricks 6 run (Laszlo Toser kick), 9:01
RC – Daoust 79 run (Hatlem kick), 7:25
RC – York 21 run (pass failed), 4:01
Third Quarter
OOL – Rashun Freeman 84 interception return (Toser kick), 6:19
RC – Dotson 1 run (pass failed), 1:44
RC – Cody Bice 3 run (Hatlem kick), 0:37
Fourth Quarter
RC – York 1 run (Hatlem kick), 5:18
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)
A.J. Diggs (29) of Ooltewah tries to run down Rhea County's Zach Daoust Friday night in the Class 5A state football playoffs in Evensville. The Golden Eagles trounced the Owls, 47-14, and gained 475 yards rushing.
photo by Dennis Norwood