Neal’s heroics pace Rams win

By Allan Taylor

Correspondent

First, Sean Neal dashed in for the tying touchdown run. Next, he caught a swing pass and weaved in for the go-ahead score.

By the end of a 29-7 District 6-AA victory, Tyner’s do-it-all senior even stepped in at quarterback — after an injury felled starter Travis Jones — and steered two more touchdown drives as the Rams buried East Ridge on Friday night.

Neal also scampered 54 yards on an apparent punt-return touchdown, getting horse-collared at the goal line. But a separate penalty on Tyner (4-2, 3-0) nullified the play.

“The highlight was just that we won. That’s all that matters,” Neal said.

His 8-yard run tied it at 7 early in the second quarter, and his 9-yard pass from Jones — on a sidearm toss with the quarterback under pressure — put the Rams up 13-7 before halftime.

“It’s a three-route play and I was the last option,” Neal said. “But T.J. broke some tackles and did a great job swinging it out to me.”

The only blight on the homecoming win for the Rams was losing Jones to a right leg injury early in the third quarter.

But Neal picked up the slack, running in a 16-yarder before hitting Damiean Suttles on the two-point pass for a 21-7 edge.

“The physical therapist told me that Travis will probably be all right,” said Tyner coach Wayne Turner. “But there was no need to put him back in there. Sean’s had a lot of reps at quarterback. He’s been one of our most consistent players all season, so to see him come in and do a good job, that wasn’t a surprise.”

Tyner piled up 361 yards, including 260 rushing. East Ridge (3-3, 1-2) got 155 yards on 5-of-13 passing from Demetrius Bumpus, but the Pioneers wound up with minus-20 yards rushing.

“Tyner is so hard to run against, so you’ve got to try to throw the ball on them,” East Ridge coach Mike Martin said. “But we had some sacks, and when you’re second-and-20 against those guys, you’re in trouble. That’s why they’re leading the district”

The East Ridge defense kept the deficit from being worse by creating three red-zone turnovers.

One came on Trey Toran’s first-quarter interception at the East Ridge 7. Instead of going conservative, Bumpus aired it out to Dominique Strickland, who broke free on a crossing route and juked a defender for a 90-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead.

“We played kind of sloppy, nonchalant in the first half,” Turner said. “We got better in the second half, but we tend not to play up to our potential sometimes.”

Suttles led Tyner with 92 yards on 13 carries, while Neal had 63 yards on 10 attempts.

Jones was 4-of-7 passing for 56 yards before the injury, and Neal was 2-of-3 for 45 yards in relief. East Ridge tailback Chase Steele, limited by an ankle injury the past two weeks, ran 19 yards on nine carries and even played a series at quarterback late in the game.

Pioneers linebacker Stefan Nelson made 27 tackles, including 20 solos, forced a fumble and blocked a PAT.