By Steve Heath / Prep Editor of The Daily News Journal

It wasn’t a typical Riverdale-Dickson County football game at Tomahawk Stadium Friday.

It was high-scoring and the Cougars, known for their three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust style of football, won it by connecting on a number of big pass plays.

Dickson County improved to 5-0 on the season by beating Riverdale (3-2) for the first time since a 1999 first-round playoff upset, 36-29.

The 65 combined points is the most ever in the 13-game all-time series, still led by the Warriors 9-4.

“We try to disguise our throws as much as we can,” said Dickson County head coach Jerry Pearson. “We’ve lived on the run for all those years and we’re fortunate this year to have (receivers) Grant Allen and Jared Stokes and a quarterback like Shane Bishop.

“Anyway you look at it, I didn’t dream we could come up here and score 36 points. It was one of those see-saw battles. Usually when we play Riverdale we hope it’s a low-scoring game. We don’t want to get in a shootout with them.”

Bishop threw for 196 yards and three touchdowns. Allen caught two of the touchdown passes and had six catches for 144 yards. Stokes had just one catch, but it was crucial on the Cougars’ game-winning drive.

Stokes’ grab for 29 yards on a third-and-nine play from Cougars’ 48 kept the series going and with 3:09 left in the game senior tailback Jordan Tinsley scored on a five-yard run. Tailback Eric Bromell added the two-point conversion.

“Too many mistakes,” said Riverdale coach Gary Rankin. “Our secondary was atrocious and our offensive execution was terrible. You can’t win like that and you shouldn’t win like that.

“We wrote on the (chalk) board before we came out (on the field) to be physical on defense, and I think we tried to do that, and to not fall asleep in the secondary. We were asleep in the secondary all night long. They were wide open. Our secondary was completely lost and that’s my fault.”

Rankin wasn’t the only one taking some blame for the defeat. Riverdale junior quarterback Dave Thomas was disappointed in his performance. He was intercepted three times.

“We didn’t come out like we should have and I threw three interceptions,” Thomas said.

“I’ll take the blame. You’re not supposed to win games when you throw three interceptions. They didn’t have a pass rush at all, but my receivers were covered.”

Riverdale had taken a 29-28 lead with 9:34 left in the game. Sophomore tailback Gaston Miller scored on a 67-yard run and when the Warriors elected to go for two-points, Thomas dove into the end zone to give the home team a one-point lead.

Dickson County took over from its own 20 and took 6:17 off the clock in its 80-yard march to victory.

“When we got across mid-field we didn’t have to worry about punting any more,” Pearson said. “We were able to let the clock run. We didn’t have to get in our hurry-up (offense). When you don’t have to get in your hurry-up it’s a whole lot easier to stay with your regular plan.”

The Warriors had no choice but to go in hurry-up mode. A clipping penalty negated a Thomas run for a first down and an interception on fourth down ended Riverdale’s hopes.

“We beat ourselves tonight,” said Riverdale senior fullback/linebacker Spike McDaniel, whose first-half touchdown run gave the Warriors a 21-14 lead. “We knew they were a physical football team, but we beat ourselves (Friday).

“There were fundamental errors. We started playing our tempo at the end of the first half. We came out the same way, but we made too many mistakes. That’s the bottom line.”