It was all bad for Red Bank High School's football team just a week before.
But seven days after being throttled by McCallie in a shutout loss, it was the Lions who held East Ridge's offense without a touchdown Friday night, suffocating the Pioneers in a 22-10 Region 3-3A win.
Led by special teams and defense, the Lions (2-3, 1-1) stifled the Pioneers (3-2, 1-1) on the ground enough to force them to attack through air, but it was a no-fly zone at Red Bank. The Lions sacked the quarterback, blocked a punt and won the field-position game with a few good returns as they ended their losing streak at three games.
"The guys came to practice knowing that they had a chance to beat a team that's our same level and that we could compete with," Red Bank coach Chad Grabowski said. "It's hard to go against Baylor and McCallie when they can go get anybody they want. They've got 90 deep, and they're all the same kid whether it's first or third string.
"Being able to come out and compete against a team that's our caliber of opponent is huge, and we've got that for the rest of the season, so it's good. We get back on track, and that's what we need to do."
The Lions tied the game at 3-all in the opening minutes of the second quarter after the Pioneers kicked a field goal on their opening possession.
The Lions forced a punt on East Ridge's ensuing drive after a sack by Ivan Young, but Red Bank went three-and-out and gave the ball back to the Pioneers in Red Bank territory. A 5-yard penalty moved East Ridge closer to the end zone, but Red Bank stuffed the run on the next play for a 7-yard loss.
On third down, it was Young again coming up big with his second sack in the period. Then on fourth-and-17, the junior defensive end sped into East Ridge's backfield to block a punt and recover it at the Pioneers' 39.
"He played hard. He's done a great job," Grabowski said. "He had a couple bad weeks, and we're just talking to him, watching film, and getting him back on track has been a big key for him. Being able to get the whole D-line back on track has been huge for us, because that sets up everything."
The Pioneers made some stellar plays to keep Red bank from scoring to end the half - Trey Hubbard attacked from the left side to sack Calvin Jackson, who was intercepted on the next play by Braxton Moffett.
"We did some good things on offense, we just made too many mistakes on offense," Grabowski said. "Penalties, fumbles and interceptions - we were shooting ourselves in the foot too much on offense. We should have scored another 21 points probably. Again, we've got to make sure we get back on Monday and clean up those things and get better."
In the third quarter, it was Jackson and Zay Brown running the ball that helped get Red Bank into East Ridge territory.
On third-and-20, Jackson completed a pass to Mike Clark, threading the needle between two defenders and allowing Clark to make a defender miss and run into the end zone.
The Lions forced another three-and-out, but a fumble by Jackson on the following drive was scooped and taken to the end zone by Lorenzo Stewart to tie the game at 10.
With the ball back, the Lions drove inside the Pioneers' 5 and scored when Jackson ran off the left side for a 16-10 lead.
East Ridge's next two drives ended in punts and the third ended in an interception after Jackson added a touchdown run with 2:13 left.