By: Denton Ramsey / Sports Editor

The Demopolis Tigers came out at home against the Saint James Trojans and immediately proved why they have gone undefeated all season.

The Tigers played solid defense, opened holes in the line, and stood their ground in all aspects of the game as they picked up a shutout in round one of the playoffs.

“I thought we played great,” Tigers head coach Doug Goodwin said.

“The first half, I thought we played outstanding.

I think our defense did a good job of not giving them time to throw the ball.

And offensively, I thought we played fantastic.”

At the 7:13 mark in the first quarter, Dusty Gracie rushed in 11 yards for the first Tigers touchdown of the game to give Demopolis a 6-0 lead.

Towards the end of the first quarter, Devin Goodwin picked off a pass to give Demopolis possession at the 40-yard line.

After the rest of the first quarter rolled to an end without any more scoring, the Tigers were sitting on 2nd and 8 to begin the second quarter.

And on the opening play of the quarter, Goodwin connected with Chad Schroeder for a 13-yard touchdown pass to increase the Tigers lead to 12-0.

The Tigers scored again with 9:08 remaining in the first half when Goodwin found Colby Roberts open for a 45-yard touchdown pass.

After a successful two-point conversion pass from Bart Pettus to Clarke Kerby, the Tigers increased their lead to 20-0.

As the second quarter was rolling to an end, a Goodwin pass to Dontrell Miller appeared to be good for a touchdown, but the referees called Miller out of bounds at the 8-yard line.

And on the first play following the out of bounds call, Rod Jones rushed in for the touchdown and a 27-0 Tigers lead.

Demopolis added one more score before halftime with 0:17 left in the first half when Goodwin connected with Schroeder for a 12-yard touchdown pass.

After a successful extra point kick by Goodwin, the Tigers went into the locker room for halftime with a comfortable 34-0 lead.

But the Tigers were not through showing their true talent.

To begin the second half of play, the Tigers were receiving the ball with Schroeder back to return the kickoff.

And return it he did.

On the first play of the second half, Schroeder took the ball and weaved in and out of defenders, rushing in 86 yards for a touchdown to bring the Tigers lead to 41-0.

With Saint James sitting on a 3rd and 6 on their first possession of the second half, Vincent Jackson picked off a pass to give Demopolis possession at the 35-yard line.

And with 9:51 remaining in the third quarter, Gracie rushed in 28 yards for another Tigers touchdown and a 47-0 Demopolis lead.

Midway through the third quarter, William Burrell fumbled the ball at the 2-yard line as the Tigers were threatening to score again.

But it didn’t take long for Demopolis to retain possession.

On the first play from the 2-yard line for Saint James, a bad pass resulted in a second interception for Jackson to give the Tigers possession at the 25-yard line.

And on the third play of the drive for Demopolis, Goodwin connected with Schroeder for a 25-yard touchdown pass with 3:29 left in the third quarter.

After Goodwin’s extra point attempt sailed left, the Tigers lead stood at 53-0.

As the Tigers took over possession after a downed punt towards the end of the third quarter, coach Goodwin called on Miller to replace Goodwin at the quarterback position.

And with 11:52 remaining in the game, Jones rushed in 15 yards carrying defenders on his back to bring the Tigers to a commanding 60-0 lead.

Towards the halfway point of the fourth quarter, Rob Quinney came into replace Miller at the quarterback position to finish off the game.

After the Trojans took over possession with less than a minute to go in the game, Saint James finally had a positive yardage situation when Tyler Murphy connected with Matt Ward for a 1st and 10 from the 14-yard line.

But the Tigers defense stood strong.

After stopping the Trojans twice in a row and after timeouts called by Saint James after each stop, the Trojans were sitting on 3rd and 4 with 0:24 left in the game.

With a big stop by the solid Demopolis defense, the Trojans called their final timeout with 0:13 remaining in the game.

And after the timeout, the Trojans field goal unit came into attempt to stop the shutout.

But the Demopolis defense wasn’t about to let that happen.

Jackson swarmed through the line and blocked the field goal to give Demopolis possession with 0:08 left in the game, preserving the Tigers shutout.

As Quinney knelt the ball to tick the final seconds off the clock, the Tigers walked away victorious with a 60-0 shutout win.

“Devin was on tonight,” coach Goodwin said.

“And the line did a good job of giving him time to throw.

Our running backs ran good and it was a great overall win.”

With the win, the Tigers will now move onto round two of the playoffs against Thomasville, slated for a 7:00 p.m. kickoff next Friday at Demopolis.