Taking on one of the state’s largest and most successful programs was a huge challenge for the Demopolis Middle School Tigers. It ended up being a challenge they almost conquered anyway.

DMS traveled to 6A Prattville Tuesday night and despite fighting tooth-and-nail with the program whose varsity currently tops the state rankings, came away with an 8-0 loss. After threatening on several possessions the Lions broke through on the last play of the third quarter and DMS was unable to answer.

Despite the loss, the first of the season for DMS, head coach Mark Cochrane was upbeat about his team’s performance.

“We played well enough to beat them,” he said. “Our guys have nothing to hang their heads about. We just needed to make one or two plays. In the end they made a few more plays than we did.”

The Tigers’ best scoring chance of the game came in the first half when DMS drove to the Prattville 20 and Cochrane called for a razzle-dazzle trick play that left Kisandre Adams open in the end zone. But the Lions prevented the pass from being thrown and the ball was turned over on downs.