Pioneers Upset Pounders

East Ridge picked up its firs win of the football season with a 22-15 win over Region 2/4A foe Central, Friday night on the Pounders’ field.

Central, playing without Mr. Football candidate Michael McGhee, scored on its first possession on a 22-yard pass. The two point conversion put the Pioneers (1-6, 1-2) in the hole, 8-0.

East Ridge responded with a 1-yard plunge by quarterback Alonzo Russell. Three bad snaps by Central in its ensuring possession resulted in a safety and East Ridge took the lead, 9-8. at the half.

Central (4-3, 3-1) regained the lead in the third quarter with a touchdown pass.

East Ridge rebounded with a long, fourth-quarter drive to give the Pioneers the lead for good. Russell, who finished the game with 270 all-purpose yards, insured the win with a 49-yard scoring toss to Nico Johnikin.

The Pioneers will try to make it two wins in a row, as they travel to Sequoyah next Friday in another Region 2 4/A contest.

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.