James Gilmore

BNI Newswire

CAMDEN – A win is a win, and a loss is a loss regardless of how you play.

The Demopolis Tigers had to overcome four turnovers to beat the Wilcox-Central High School Jaguars 39-8 Friday night.

“We’re still turning the ball over too many times,” said Doug Goodwin, Demopolis coach.

DHS improves to 2-2 for the season. It gets its first win in 5A regional play and is now 1-2 in the region.

The Tigers had great field position the entire game. Their first touchdown drive started at the Jaguar 13-yard line. The next started at the Wilcox 29, and the next three touchdowns were from the Wilcox 47,18 and 8-yard lines. Only Demopolis’ last touchdown resulted from a drive from Demopolis territory. That one started at the 30-yard line.

The Tigers took advantage of costly turnovers made by the Jaguars. “Mistakes has been the story of our season,” said a disgruntled John Moton, Wilcox-Central coach. “Mistakes, mistakes, mistakes, and we’re not a young ball team. I don’t know what the problem is.”

Demopolis reached paydirt once in the first quarter when the Jaguars fumbled the punt attempt at their own 13-yard line.

Shantrell (Remus) Braxton scored from eight yards out, giving the Tigers a 7-0 lead. Braxton finished with three touchdowns for the night.

Senior Lucious Haywood, who also reached the end zone three times, culminated a 29-yard drive when he scooted in on a 6-yard run midway through the second quarter to give his team a 14-point advantage.

Wilcox would fumble on its next possession, giving the Tigers the ball at the Jaguar 39-yard line. On the next play, Braxton galloped 39 yards off left tackle to put his team up 20-0. That’s how the half ended.

“We wanted to establish our running game,” added Goodwin. “Our line blocked pretty good and our backs ran hard.”

Wilcox got on the board early in the third quarter when quarterback Edward Grayson busted up the middle on a 5-yard run. Quintarius Brooks ran around right end for the two-point conversion to make the score 20-8. That ended the scoring for the Jaguars for the night.

Demopolis would score three times in the second half, once in the third quarter on Haywood’s 4-yard blast.

Braxton would get the next touchdown to start the fourth quarter from two yards out, and Haywood would close the scoring on a 7-yard run.

Sophomore Jacob Kerby, who made his first start at quarterback, showed lots of guts and confidence, as well as taking some big hits. “We felt like he deserved a chance,” commented Goodwin. “He’s a smart kid, and he makes good decision. He’s going to get better and better.” Kerby only threw seven passes and completed two of them.

Wilcox-Central’s record falls to 1-3 overall and 1-2 in the region. It will play host to Selma next week.