This time, there just weren’t quite enough heroics.

The Demopolis junior varsity had made a habit of staging fourth-quarter comebacks in winning their first four games of the 2005 season, but this time it was homestanding Thomasville scoring the fourth-quarter touchdown as the Tigers fell 14-8.

“They played a good game,” said coach Dusty Davis. “They made a good effort. In the end, we just didn’t make enough plays.”

Part of that can be chalked up, Davis says, to rust as a group. The JV’s game against Greensboro Oct. 17 was cancelled and the team was off a week before that.

“They did all we asked them to do,” he says. “We hadn’t played in three weeks as a JV team. I just wish we’d pulled it out at the end.”

As with their earlier victories, DHS fell behind in the first half as Thomasville scored and kicked the extra point for a 7-0 halftime lead. But Demopolis took a slim lead of its own in the third quarter. Sophomore Scott Cannon hit freshman Brian Taylor with a touchdown pass and Shontrell Braxton carried for the two-point conversion, putting Demopolis up 8-7 heading into the fourth quarter.

But with only five minutes left in the game, Thomasville pushed a second score across and took a 14-8 lead. Demopolis could not get their own second touchdown and the game ended in a six-point Thomasville win.

The game concluded the DHS JV’s schedule for 2005. The Tigers finish with a 4-1 record and, more importantly, plenty of valuable experience on the playing field.

“We got to play a lot of kids. A lot of kids got a ton of playing time,” Davis says. “It’s great to get those kids experience, playing as a group…We had a good time.”