Football Preview: Austin-East Roadrunners vs. Pigeon Forge Tigers
Austin-East and Pigeon Forge are an even 4-4 against one another since October of 2014, but not for long. The Austin-East Roadrunners are taking a road trip to face off against the Pigeon Forge Tigers at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Austin-East will come in still looking for their first win of the season.
Austin-East is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They took a hard 49-35 fall against Roane County on Friday. Even if the Roadrunners couldn't come away with the win, the high-scoring effort was a great turnaround for their offense, which had struggled int the games prior.
Even though the team lost, they still had their share of impressive performances. One of the best came from Dimere Ligon, who rushed for 70 yards and a touchdown, and also picked up 64 receiving yards and a touchdown. He got the majority of those receiving yards when he pulled down a pass and took off for a gain of 51 yards. Michael Gladney was another key back, rushing for 125 yards and a touchdown on only 13 carries.
He was just one part of a punishing run game: Austin-East was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 225 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted since back in October of 2023.
Meanwhile, Pigeon Forge won a matchup that couldn't have been any closer, slipping by Meigs County 15-14.
Wyatt Howard was his usual excellent self, rushing for 144 yards and two touchdowns. His rushing production has been exceptional recently as that marked his fourth straight game with at least 131 rushing yards dating back to last season.
Austin-East's loss dropped their record down to 0-7. As for Pigeon Forge, they are on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four matches, which provided a nice bump to their 5-2 record this season.
Everything came up roses for Austin-East against Pigeon Forge in their previous matchup back in September of 2023, as the team secured a 46-14 victory. The rematch might be a little tougher for Austin-East since the squad won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
