CAMDEN – The Tigers (5-4, 5-1) rounded out region play on the road Friday night with a 55-22 win over Wilcox-Central (1-8, 1-5).

It took Demopolis only three plays to hit paydirt on their opening possession of the game. After an incomplete pass, sophomore DaMarcus James broke a 54-yard run before putting the Tigers on the board with a 13-yard run.

Demopolis followed by recovering its own onside kick and marching 51 yards on eight plays to extend its lead.

Senior Rick Boone capped off the drive with a two-yard touchdown bolt to push the lead to 14-0.

“Our offense was very efficient with the football,” DHS head coach Tom Causey said of his first team group, which managed 271 yards on only 17 plays before exiting the game.

Demopolis struck again minutes later when senior middle linebacker Greg Irvin picked off a pass and returned it 52 yards for a touchdown. Two Wilcox-Central possessions later, Irvin struck again with another interception.

This time the opportunistic backer chewed up 78 yards of turf on his way to the end zone, putting Demopolis up 28-0.

The Tigers added two more touchdowns before the half, one on a nine-yard pass to James and the other on a 54-yard toss to James.

Demopolis carried a 42-0 lead into the half after having allowed only 108 yards on 32 plays.

“I thought our defense did a great job defending what (WCHS does),” Causey said. “To get two touchdowns like that in the first half is huge.”

The Tigers added another score on their first possession of the third quarter when James scored from 36 yards out on the second play of the half for the DHS offense.

Wilcox then answered back against the Demopolis second defensive unit, marching 80 yards in 10 plays to get on the scoreboard on a four-yard touchdown run by Antoine Martin.

JaLarrias Brewer added the two-point conversion run to cut the score to 49-8.

Later in the game, Demopolis’ second offense was on the eighth play of a drive that had taken it to the WCHS 16-yard line before a fumble in the backfield found its way into the hands of Harry Finklea, who ran the ball 80 yards for a touchdown. Brewer added the two-point conversion again to make the score 49-16.

After Demopolis turned the ball over on the ensuing kickoff, Wilcox-Central needed only four plays to go 35 yards and cut the score to 49-22 on a six-yard scoring run by Brewer.

“We’ve got to get better,” Causey told his team after the game.

Demopolis’ final touchdown of the game came when senior Brian Taylor intercepted a pass at his own four yard line and returned it 96 yards for the score.

“Between now and next Thursday, we’ve got to continue to get better at the fundamentals,” Causey said of what the Tigers will focus on leading up to their Thursday night showdown with rival Thomasville.

James was the team’s leading rusher and receiver. He tallied 120 yards and two touchdowns on only six carries while hauling in two passes for 63 yards and two touchdowns.

Boone went 5-for-10 passing for 110 yards and two touchdowns while adding 38 yards and a touchdown on only four carries.

“He’s doing a great job running the offense,” Causey said of Boone. “He isn’t trying to win the ballgame. He’s trying to manage the offense.”

Sophomore Ben Pettus assisted the defensive effort with an interception of his own. Demopolis travels to Thomasville Thursday while Wilcox-Central wraps up its season with J.F. Shields.