The game may be American by birth, but it took the leg of a Spaniard to ice the Tennessee Class 1A State Football Championship for the Union City High School Golden Tornadoes as they came from behind with 6.7 seconds left to defeat the Pirates of South Pittsburg, 31-29, in the BlueCross Bowl held in its inaugural year at Overall Field, Tucker Stadium on the campus of Tennessee Tech University.

South Pitt had taken the lead at 3:27 of the final quarter and had gone for a two-point conversion which was successful. But as Pirates' coach Vic Grider explained in his post-game interview, "We just couldn’t get off the field defensively."

The Pirates needed desperately to stop the final drive by the Tornado but just couldn't seem to stop the juggernaut that was Golden Tornado Josh Nicks. Nicks, who set a new championship record for carries in a championship game with 47, as well as grounding out 201 yards and one touchdown, took the hand-off from quarterback Chase Bowling five times for 18 yards as the Tornado drove from their own 27-yard line.

The drive ran out of juice at the South Pittsburg five yard line. Union City coach Darren Bowling then called for his exchange student place-kicker to attempt the game winner, a 22-yarder. If there was any confusion with a language barrier it wasn’t apparent on this snap. Senor' Jorge Guerri, lately of Valencia, Spain and more currently of Union City drove the ball straight through the uprights to give his team the lead and eventual victory.

Guerri had remarked that his friends would have no idea about what he was involved in and some here would as he was not quite sure of his role in securing the state championship for his school. Coach Bowling remarked at the post-game interview session that he (Guerri) was even sure why anyone would want to talk to him.

"When I told him that he was wanted at the press conference, all he said was, 'but coach, all I did was kick a field goal." Maybe so, but he will a nice piece of jewelry to take back to Spain and show his friends there what one receives in America for kicking a "field goal."

As upbeat at the Golden Tornadoes were, their South Pittsburg counterpoints were just as equally and understandably upset. Offering no excuses for their tears the Pirates were still walking around with their heads held high. Coach Grider said in his remarks, "They outplayed us; they outcoached us; they are a tough team and they deserved to win today." As he went on to explain, "They knocked us around and were just too physical for us. It wasn’t a surprise, we had talked about it all week long. They are a very patient team and it's easy to see that they are very well coached."

From the other sideline, Coach Bowling said of his opponents, "We've had to knock our opponents around all year, these guys we just had to hammer a bit harder." He continued, "We have a good group of seniors and our team consists of a lot of box players. We just wanted to come out and be physical." As for Nicks, his senior running back, he said, "He's a great combination of blood, sweat and tears who just loves the game."

Nicks was named the games' Offensive MVP, while South Pittsburg's Robinson added the Defensive MVP to his earlier award as Mr. Football Back in the Class 1A category.

In the end it was most likely that the veer offense run by Union City was just too much for smaller Pirates. The Golden Tornadoes ran the ball 69 times for 355 yards while holding the Pirates to 101 yards rushing on 24 attempts. However, the Pirate defense held Union City to 0 yards passing, with Tornado quarterback officially tossing one pass for zero yards and one interception – a pick by 2009 Mr. Football Winner Terrel Robinson with 32 seconds left in the first quarter. From that point on it was all a ground attack for Union City.

South Pittsburg opened up the scoring with a 1 yard run by Terrel with 10:46 left in the second period. The drive began on the Union City 43 after a Robinson interception and took 1:46 with seven plays and 43 yards. This was followed by a Golden Tornadoes' six at the 1:35 mark in the second quarter. Jacob Worley ended an 18 play, 65 yard drive that took 9:11 off the clock.

Robinson hit for the second of his third touchdowns on a 4-yard run from scrimmage with 17 seconds left in the quarter. He closed out his scoring in the fourth quarter with a 5-yard scramble with 3:27 to go, giving the Pirates their last lead of the game.

The Pirates' Malcolm Jones provided some fireworks himself on offense when after the Tornado had scored a touch on a Gilbert Price 11-yard run at 5:57 left in the third quarter. Jones then raced 98-yards on the ensuing kick-off for a record tying score.

So, if you put it in the perspective of Spanish place-kicker Jorge Guerri, it was just another field goal. For the others on both squads it was either a high spot in a high school career or a definite low spot. Distance-wise it's a lot longer to Union City; emotionally it will be a whole lot longer back to South Pittsburg.

Score by Quarter:
Union City HS 0...7...14..10 - 31
South Pittsburg 0..14...7...8 - 29

South Pittsburg's quarterback, Terrell Robinson tries to avoid a tackle.
- Photo2 by Ken Wallace