Panthers Hold Off Pioneer Rally

Brainerd downed East Ridge, 21-18, Friday night in high school football.

The loss leaves the Pioneers (0-4) still looking for their first win of the season. East Ridge will get that opportunity on Sept. 21, as they travel to take on Signal Mountain, which has yet to win a game this year.

East Ridge took a 6-0 lead early in the game on a 20-yard touchdown pass from Alonzo Russell to Nico Johnikin.

Brainerd (2-2) took the lead, 7-6, as Trey Ooten was on the receiving end of a 42-yard bomb from quarterback Xiyeer Lattimore.

The Pioneers countered with a touchdown pass of its own on a nine-yard strike from Russell to Eli King.

The Panthers then marched 62 yards, scoring on a fourth-and-goal when Lattimore barreled over the goal line on a one-yard keeper making it 14-12, Brainerd.

Brainerd scored again on a four-yard run from Cedo Chaney, extending the lead to 21-12.

East Ridge scratched its way back in the game mounting an 11-play, 70-yard drive. Jaylen Boykin provided six points on a four-yard run, making the score 21-18.

East Ridge had an opportunity late in the game pushing into the Brainerd red zone. The Panthers forced a turnover to preserve the second win of the season.

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.