Pioneers Remain Undefeated

Kentrell Harris scored on a two-yard run with 36 seconds left in the game to give East Ridge a 21-17 win over Signal Mountain Friday night at Shanks Field/Raymond James Stadium.

The Homecoming win gives the Pioneers a perfect 5-0 record on the season. Next week East Ridge will travel to Anderson County. The game has been nominated as a Titans High School Game of the Week.

Trailing by three in the fourth quarter, East Ridge drove 65 yards for the deciding points. Big plays on the drive included an Eric Bennett pass to Eli King for 15 yards after a critical penalty on East Ridge, and Bennett also picked up a crucial first down on third-and-five from inside the Signal Mountain 10-yard line.

Trailing 3-0 with time running out in the first quarter, Bennett threw to King for six points. C.J. Bond’s conversion gave East Ridge a 7-3 halftime lead.

The two teams traded third-quarter scores on big plays. First, Signal Mountain’s Travon Williams hauled in a Tom Vatter pass for a 55-yard strike. Then Bennett hit King from 20-yards out.

Williams caught a scoring pass, this time from 16 yards out, giving the Eagles a 17-14 lead and setting up the dramatic final drive for the Pioneers.

East Ridge had 93 yards on the ground, led by Kashawn Cosey with 45 yards on six carries.

Quarterback Bennett finished the night with 132 yards passing, completing 12 of 17 passes.

East Ridge suffered two fumbles and were penalized eight times for 65 yards.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.