PLANTERSVILLE — The Martin Middle School Bulldogs suffered their first loss of the season, as they fell 39-0 to the Maplesville Red Devils on Thursday.

Jerry Harrison, head football coach of the Bulldogs (2-1), said his team just got off to a slow start and never recovered.

“We came out a little sluggish, we got behind early and that took us a little bit out of our game plan,” Harrison said. “We didn’t tackle very well, we didn’t wrap up. We ran the ball pretty well at times, but we were having a hard time blocking their linebackers. Their linebackers did a great job stepping up and stopping our option.”

The Red Devils got on the board early in the first quarter when Terrance Dunlap ran in from one yard out.

Maplesville quarterback Cole Spencer found Stevonte Bradley on a short pass to add the 2-point conversion and make it an 8-0 game with 3:29 left in the opening quarter.

Maplesville continued its momentum when Spencer found Jerry Nix on a 35-yard pass that set up a 3-yard touchdown run by Nix one play later, which made the score 14-0 with 2:20 left in the quarter.

Maplesville added another touchdown in the first quarter when Michael Hunt broke loose on the sideline for a 20-yard touchdown run that made it a 20-0 game with 36 seconds left in the first.

Maplesville added three more touchdowns in the game, including one off a fumble recovery.

Harrison said the Red Devils are a tough opponent, and the Bulldogs will work hard to bounce back from the loss.

“It was a tough loss and they’re a good team,” Harrison said. “They have a real good program at Maplesville and that’s just something that we’ve got to keep working towards.”

The Bulldogs will take the field again Tuesday at Billingsley with kickoff at 6 p.m.