The Tyner team that strolled into East Ridge on Friday was one part short-handed, one part humbled and one part – well, just a little bit angry.
The Rams left with a little bit of a smile and a hard-fought, old-school defensive 12-7 victory over an equally tough East Ridge team.
When Rams coach Wayne Turner smiled and said it had been an “interesting” week on the practice field, it didn’t take an interpreter to know some of the Tyner players went home a little light in the rear ends each night.
Tyner (1-3) avoided being the first Rams team in 37 years to lose four straight to open a season, but it took an 80-yard Bobby Hendricks kickoff return for a score with just 4:36 left to ensure it didn’t happen.
“Hey, I’m a senior so it [the 0-3 start] hurts. I knew I needed to make something happen,” said Hendricks, who broke several tackles, made a magnificent spin move at midfield and kicked in for the deciding score. “We played too well on defense to lose this one. If we were going to make the playoffs, we had to have this one.”