Tar Heel in TN

I'm not sure how stating we lost to a better team, wishing them good luck, and congratulating our team on a good season makes a post a "whine - a - thon". I simply thought that those few calls were a bit questionable. But, you have a right to freedom of speech as do I, and I was simply excercising my right and opinion. I never took anything away from Maryville's game, unless saying they deserved to win is a negative comment. At any rate, all of this arguing over a game thats been over for 2 days now is a waste of time and I'm done with it. AGAIN, GOOD LUCK TO MARYVILLE THIS WEEK.

I agree, I didn't read a single post claiming that the ref's lost the game for us. I think we all agree that Marvyille was simply better than us Friday night, bottom line. I feel as though the officiating was downright terrible, but they didn't throw any picks, drop any passes, or miss any tackles; that's on us. I do however feel that the timing of some of the calls were a bit interesting, given the grounding penalty was only called when we were deep in Maryville territory and the 15 yarder tossed on our coach. Oh, and that illegal touching call I'll probably never understand. But, there's no use crying over spilled milk: it's basketball season in Evensville now and Maryville plays on. Good luck to you guys, gonna be a heck of a game this week in Red Bank. Also congratulations to Rhea County on a great season and for finally playing Maryville heads up instead of going in thinking we're going to lose. That was the first time I've seen us play without being afraid of the Maryville legend.

Man. And just when I was starting to miss the 6th grade, this argument comes along. Seriously people it's a high school football game with 16,17, and 18 year old kids playing who may or may not get excited afterwards and say something they wouldn't otherwise say. Nobody is disrespecting Maryville. We all know you guys are the team to beat. All year long every post I've read has talked about how the championship goes through Maryville and things of the sort. The truth is, anyone can beat anyone on any given night. That's true of Maryville, Rhea County, Red Bank, Ohio State, anyone. The 1-6 Dolphins took the 7-0 Bears to the woodshed this past weekend in the NFL. Arguments like these on web sites like this mean absolutely nothing come Friday night. See you tomorrow. Good luck.

I believe sportsfan was referring to Rhea County moving from a wing-T offense to the more pass oriented offense we now run.

I mean one of those nights where you do everything right and play out of your minds. Kind of like the Hixson game. Kind of like we are capable of doing every week, but haven't been able to do consistently, haha.

Finally, we put together a complete game. Cleveland you guys played hard but it just seemed like we were one step quicker tonight. That was the most satisying win in a long time, to beat a very good team like that...congratulations Eagles. Cleveland, keep your heads up because you guys are definitely good enough to surprise someone in the playoffs. This was just one of those rare nights for Rhea County. I'd also like to comment on the level of sporstmanship that was displayed tonight. At least from the bleachers it looked like two groups of young men out there, not two groups of boys like we've seen all too much in recent years on all levels of football. Both teams acted like champions and that's why I think both teams will represent their schools well in the playoffs, good luck!

Buddy if you think the strong dislike is just now brewing between these teams you must have just moved to the area. Cleveland - Rhea County is one of the best rivalries in this part of the state, in every sport. I played in a few of the basketball matchups when I was in school a few years back, and it's intense. Basically it just sounds like it'll be business as usual next Friday in Bradley County.

Where is 'down here'? I have lived in Rhea County for 12 years now, and have yet to see a Rhea County team that just showed up expecting to lose. Yeah Red Bank is favored, but that doesn't mean Rhea County won't show up. I expect exactly the opposite Friday night, I think we'll be ready to play.

I thought we played pretty solid Friday night. As someone else said, Central is not as bad as their 0-7 record may indicate. The defense looked to be returning to their early season form and the offense was definitely clicking on all cylinders. Anyone know why McKinnon didn't play? Let's hope it's just some sort of precautionary measure and he's able to play the rest of the year. Overall good win for Rhea Co, now it's time to really find out what we've got. Good luck Eagles

Rhea County hasn't really proven that we can beat either Red Bank or Cleveland. Outside of the Hixson game, they honestly have not been that impressive. Talented? Yes. Disciplined? At times. Focused? Every now and then. Put the three together and we can beat both those teams. However, until that happens, we're just potential: plain and simple. There's no sense in getting on here saying we'll take anyone behind the woodshed. We've got Chattanooga Central Friday night, a game that we should win easily. Then we have the two most important games of the season in successive weeks: @ Red Bank and @ Cleveland, and finish up at home vs. White County. Predictions for the rest of the year: Ideally (and quite frankly, a legitimate possibility): 4-0 Realistically (and it's not easy to say this, because it means that we've not played to our 100% full ability): anywhere from 3-1 to 1-3. It really could swing either way. White County is not bad at all, folks. These are based on the fact that we're about the most up-and-down team I've seen in a long time. This team has all the talent in the world, but it often fails to put it to use on every single play like we have to in order to beat teams like Red Bank and Cleveland. We're capable of beating both, but its up to the team to decide how much they want it. Oh well, just my two cents. And I imagine you guys are about as confused as I am about this post and the last 4 games of the season as well. Oh well, go Eagles.

Yeah, McMinn kinda took it to us over in Athens last night. The defense had it's only poor performance of the year last night (well, excluding the first half of the Ooltewah game) and the offense sputtered a bit due to dropped passes and poor execution. McDermott is one heck of a runner. It seems like we have trouble with teams that have good running backs. In the 2 losses this year we faced Brian Marshall of Ooltewah and Trace McDermott of McMinn County, both have big time talent. The first quarter we looked pretty good but the last 3 were not so hot, a problem that has faced us 4 out of 5 games this year. The only complete game we put up was against Hixson, and we all know what happened there. If and when we learn to put 4 quarters together consistently, look out. Good luck to both the Cherokees and the Eagles. The next two games for us are should-be wins in Walker Valley and Chattanooga Central, followed by Cleveland and Red Bank which will be tough. Let's hope we used Friday night to learn something about playing a complete game and can get on a roll heading into the post season. GO EAGLES!

While I commend Coach Fitzgerald for the job he's done thus far this season, it would have been interesting to see how it would have played out had Hammontree been here for for say, 5 years. Yes, he did things a bit differently than people in this town are used to. Yes sometimes it seemed a bit extreme. But the truth is, there are a lot of things in this county that could use some change. The man started what has been continued with Coach Quarles up at Maryville. It took him a few years to get it rolling, but I don't hear anyone up there complaining now, do you? What's different isn't always welcomed with open arms because it can make people realize that there is another way to do things, sometimes a better one, and that can make some unfomfortable. Anyway, like I said congratulations to Coach Fitz for a promising beginning to the season, and good luck from here on out. I believe that he learned quite a bit under Hammontree and its beginning to bear fruit. Go Eagles.

McMinn is possibly the best 1-win team around. We better come to play or we could be in for a rude awakening. McDermott is one of the best runners we'll see all year from what I read. I think we can and should win, but it won't be as easy as the records might indicate. Let's hope Wilson got his worst game of the year out of his system this past week. He's way too good to play that poorly two weeks in a row. Good luck Eagles

It looks to me like Soddy simply does not have the players they've had in years past. I've watched them twice this year and I didn't see the actual talent on the field they usually have. I have no idea who isn't on the team that supposedly should be or what have you, all I can say is it looks like they are just in the middle of the stereotypical slump in talent. Every school goes through it at some point or another. I don't think it will last very long, that school has a decent football tradition and good coaching. From their first game against Red Bank to last Friday night against Rhea County, I could tell a considerable difference just in the way they played the game. That tells me the kids are listening to the coaches and the coaches are doing their job. However, at some point, talent has to come into the picture which is where I think this squad may just fall short.

Thinking teams don't have 'much for us to worry about' resulted in our performance Friday night against Soddy. Sloppy sloppy sloppy. Yes we're pretty good this year. But not good enough to say we don't need to worry about other teams, especially Cleveland. We always have pretty competitive games with them no matter how up or down either school is that season. The only team that can say things of that sort would be Maryville. However, they don't see teams and games as 'gimmes' and thats why they are the best. The bottom line is, we better come into every game with the mindset we did against Hixson (that being we have to play our 'A' game to beat them) or we could very well finish the season out of the playoffs. This team is too talented for that to happen, hopefully their heads will be screwed on the right way the rest of the year.