Doug Goodwin, head football coach of the 5-0 Demopolis High School Tigers football team, wanted to go on record Monday that the 25-0 win over Choctaw County was not ugly. "It was a really good game," he said.

Spectators tend to let turnovers and penalties cloud their opinion of what Goodwin thought was a fine contest by two talented teams. "Defensively (Choctaw County) was very athletic and really got after it….They were exactly what I thought; they were big and physical and fast.

Both teams played well on defense, he said. It was the fourth straight shutout by Demopolis.

Ezell Braxton had 17 tackles (and was the defensive back of the week), and Devin Goodwin and Dontrell Miller had nine tackles. Cedric McKinley was the defensive lineman of the week. "He batted two balls down at the line of scrimmage and had a sack."

"Offensively, I thought we played real well in spots," Goodwin said. "…If we don’t put up 40 or 50 points – then (fans) think we are playing bad."

Gerard Jackson was the offensive lineman of the week; Colby Roberts was the offensive back of the week. "He had two big catches for first downs in the best drive we had."

DHS didn’t have many penalties, but Choctaw County did. That had to be due to the Demopolis defense; most of the Choctaw penalties were for procedure, he said.

The Demopolis Tigers took advantage of Choctaw turnovers. Goodwin is not happy with six interceptions in the last two games, but there are many variables to cause interceptions including protection, a bad read or the receiver didn’t run the right route.

DHS will travel Friday to Tuscaloosa to face a young Holt High Ironmen team. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. It will be the Homecoming game for Holt.

Holt’s record is not good, but "they play real hard," Goodwin said.

Holt has average size and speed. The senior tailback Edrick Pruitt runs real hard. Holt’s starting quarterback for the season got injured, so the Tigers will see junior Billy Watson at QB.

They are mostly a running team, he said. However, the DHS run defense is forcing opponents to throw the ball an average of 20 times a game.

The Ironmen are coming off their first victory, a 34-12 win last Friday over Sumter County. "I think they’re getting better each week," the DHS coach said.