HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL: Raiders drop regular season finale; turn attention to playoffs

Coffee County hung tough with Rhea County for a half Friday night, but the Golden Eagles proved too powerful and pulled away for a 42-21 win in Evensville, Tenn. (A game you heard live on Thunder Radio, 107.9 FM).

Coffee County (5-5 overall) finishes the regular season at .500 for the first time since 2007 and has the playoffs to look forward to. The Raiders will travel to Riverdale to play the Warriors in the first round of the TSSAA State Football Playoffs Friday, Nov. 5. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. and the game can be heard live on Thunder Radio.

On Friday night, the Raiders were looking to extend their winning streak to 5 games and were in position at halftime, trailing 21-14 behind a pair of touchdown passes from Connor Shemwell to Travis Martin. After falling behind 14-0, CHS evened the score on the two passing touchdowns.

But the Rhea County rushing attack was too much to stop consistently. The Raiders went 3-and-out on their first series of the second half and the Eagles proceeded to eat 8 minutes off the clock and put up a score to steal the momentum. CHS wasn’t able to get a single first down in the third quarter.

Ethan Davis did the majority of the damage for Rhea County, piling up 284 yards on 31 carries. He accounted for 5 of Rhea County’s touchdowns and also hauled in a pass for 19 yards, giving him over 300 all-purpose yards on the night.

The Raiders added a touchdown late when Shemwell connected with Martin for a third time in the end zone. Martin finished with 6 catches for 87 yards and 3 scores. Jahlin Osbourne caught 7 passes for 91 yards. Shemwell was 18-of-33 through the air for 208 yards and the 3 scores.

The Raiders had to try and use the air attack to open up room for Konor Heaton, who faced tough sledding against the Rhea County defense focused on stopping the running game. Heaton had 65 yards on 19 touches.

Thunder Radio named Martin the Mid Tenn Turf offensive player of the game and Blayne Myers the Mid Tenn Turf defensive player of the game.

THIS GAME WAS BROADCAST LIVE ON THUNDER RADIO, 107.9 FM, 1320 AM AND ON THE MANCHESTER GO APP AND THUNDER1320.COM. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE FIRST HALF REPLAY …… CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE 2ND HALF REPLAY.