Zach Daoust gained 251 yards and scored one of Rhea County’s six rushing touchdowns and the Golden Eagles pulled away with a strong fourth quarter to defeat East Hamilton’s Hurricanes, 42-14, in a non-district football game at East Hamilton High.
The Hurricanes fell to 2-7 overall while losing for the fifth time in six games. East Hamilton concludes its season at Bradley Central next week.
The Golden Eagles improved to 9-0 and go for a perfect regular season next week against Stone Memorial.
Daoust scored Rhea County’s third touchdown on a 2-yard run that pushed the Eagles’ lead to 21-7 in the third quarter.
With Daoust paving the way, Rhea piled up 545 rushing yards on 57 attempts, an average of 9.6 yards per carry.
Rhea County wound up with 569 yards of total offense, attempting just five passes. The Eagles had three backs gain at least 100 yards.
Jake York scored three touchdowns on runs of 1, 13 and 68 yards and piled up 124 yards on 14 carries. Cody Bice scored from 55 yards out and gained 122 yards on 14 carries. Daniel Dotson zipped into the end zone from 1 yard out. Rhea’s 21-point fourth quarter matched their production over the first three periods.
David Whiteside got East Hamilton’s first touchdown on a 3-yard run and Kendall Henderson tallied the second on an 8-yard burst.
The Hurricanes gained 214 yards on the ground and added 106 through the air.
Quarterback Matt Milita ran for 124 yards on 16 carries and he accounted for all the Hurricanes’ passing yards, completing 8-of-15 attempts with one interception.
Scoring Summary
Rhea County 7 0 14 21 – 42
East Hamilton 0 7 0 7 – 14
First Quarter
RC – Jake York 1 run (Aleksander Hatlem kick)
Second Quarter
EH – David Whiteside 3 run (Cooper Loftin kick)
Third Quarter
RC – Daniel Dotson 1 run (Hatlem kick)
RC – Zach Daoust 2 run (Hatlem kick)
Fourth Quarter
RC – York 13 run (Hatlem kick)
EH – Kendall Henderson 8 run (Loftin kick)
RC – York 68 run (Hatlem kick)
RC – Cody Bice 55 run (Hatlem kick)
Yardstick
RC EH
First Downs 24 16
Rushes-Yards 57-545 34-214
Passing Yards 24 106
Com.-Atts.-Yds 2-5-0 8-15-1
Total Plays-Yds 62-569 49-320
Fumbles-Lost 1-1 4-3
Punts-Avg 1-0 2-32
Penalties-Yds 5-54 5-45
Individual Statistics
Rushing – Rhea County: Zach Daoust 15-251, Jake York 14-124, Dylan Smith 3-15, Mason Stephenson 2-10, Brayce Keylon 2-10, Troy Pemberton 1-8, Jonah Scott 1-3, Daniel Dotson 5-2; East Hamilton: Matt Milita 16-124, David Whiteside 12-51, Kendall Henderson 6-39.
Passing – Rhea County: Dotson 2-5-0 24; East Hamilton: Milita 8-14-1 106, Team 0-1-0.
Receiving – Rhea County: Stephenson 1-15, Noel Patterson 1-9; East Hamilton: Whiteside 4-48, Tracy Thompson 2-39, Jeffrey Coleman 2-19.
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)