By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Union City, Tenn.–Wins in middle school football and middle school softball and a strong showing by the high school girls cross country team made Tuesday another good day for Union City Schools fall sports entries.
UCMS football triumphed in its season opener, 20-0 at Trenton, while the Lady Tornado softballers rolled over Black Oak 21-7 to remain unbeaten in three games.
Meanwhile, the UCHS girls’ cross country squad brought home hardware from the Dresden Invitational with a second-place finish among a seven-team field.
Highlights of those contests are as follows:
MIDDLE SCHOOL FOOTBALL
UC 20, Trenton 0
James Turner ran for 149 yards and two touchdowns and was also in on seven tackles to pace the Tornadoes in their 2021 debut.
Quarterback Kirben Thompson tossed a 28-yard scoring pass to Owen Waggoner and accounted for 38 yards rushing for UC, which scored a TD in the second, third, and fourth quarters. Thompson tacked on the two-point conversion following the second Twister score.
Aiden Reid had a huge game defensively for the Purple and Gold with 10 tackles – two of those for lost yardage. Aiden Disney and Cooper Javellana were in on four stops apiece.
Union City next plays Aug. 26 at Dyersburg before their first home game, Sept. 2, against Huntingdon.
MIDDLE SCHOOL SOFTBALL
UC 21, BO 7
A 15-run first inning sent the Lady Tornadoes on their way to an easy win over Black Oak.
Union City pieced together nine hits, eight walks and seven errors in the onslaught.
Emma Mobbs smacked a solo home run, while Breanna McLendon and Addison Carr each had a pair of singles and drove in two runs apiece for the Lady Twisters. Hadley Smith roped a double.
Sarah Beth Byars, Madie Theobald and Gracie Simms all scored two times apiece for UC, as did Clare Atwill and McLendon.
Carr struck out nine and went the distance in the four-inning game to notch the pitching victory.
Union City is at home again Thursday, playing Dyersburg at 5 p.m.
HIGH SCHOOL CROSS COUNTRY
Lady Tornadoes 2nd, boys 6th in first meet
A fifth-place finish by freshman Kennedi Robinson headlined the best UC girls’ team finish in recent memory. Robinson finished with a time of 23:14.28.
Bailey Wagoner (25:17.07) was 13th in the 86-runner field and Lizzy Jones (26:35.70) placed 26th. Chloe Meade (31:23.66) and Myranda Parr (32:57.77) rounded out the Lady Tornado scoring.
Senior Cedrion Cook and freshman Cole Suiter were Union City’s top two finishes on the boys’ side. Cook came in 12th (19:36.53), with Suiter (22:19.79) recording a 24th-place showing.
Cameron McLendon placed 44th with a time of 24:39.92.
Brendan Meade and Luke Joslin finished the Twisters’ Top 5 listing among 78 participants.