East Ridge High School’s football team checked off several important items on its late-season to-do list Friday night with a 35-13 win at Hixson.
The Pioneers (7-2, 2-2 TSSAA Region 3-4A) set the school record for single-season points scored with 381 so far — eclipsing by one the mark set by the 2015 team that went 12-1 and reached the state quarterfinals — and earned their seventh win in a season for the first time in nine years. Combined with Signal Mountain’s 42-12 loss to Loudon and Red Bank’s 47-0 win over Sequoyah, the Pioneers can wrap up the region’s No. 3 playoff seed with a win at Sequoyah next week to close the regular season.
“It was an ugly win, but we found a way to get it done,” East Ridge fifth-year head coach Chad Barger said. “We fumbled the opening kickoff and just never really played at our best. It wasn’t an effort thing, it was just a lack of focus that kept biting us. I’m not sure if it was just being rusty from coming off a bye week or what.
“We got some big stops when we needed them in the second half.”
Despite having just 13 offensive plays in the first two quarters, East Ridge led 21-13 at halftime. Its defense stepped up in the second half with two turnovers, including freshman Tre-yon Shoulders’ 32-yard interception return for a touchdown with just more than five minutes remaining.