In their last battle of the season, the Brantley High School Bulldogs travelled to Maplesville for round two of the playoffs.

In a sad turn of events, the Bulldogs were defeated 42-7, but they did not go down without a fight.

“I thought we played hard. We didn’t quit, we were in a situation where we needed everything to go right early to have a shot, and we missed those chances,” said BHS Head Coach Ashley Kilcrease.

“It was a lack of execution really, and we needed to win the first quarter; that’s what I said all along. We got behind and we were really beat up. Several of our folks were injured before the game started, and it everything just snowballed.”

The first quarter saw no points for the Bulldogs, while the Red Devils pulled ahead 21-0.

In the second quarter, the only Bulldog touchdown was scored by junior wide receiver D’Andre Sinclair with a 7-yard pass from senior quarterback Jacob Free; an extra point was earned with a kick by senior defensive end Tucker Owens, bringing the score up to 28-7 in favor of the Red Devils.

The third and fourth quarters saw no points for the Bulldogs, bringing the game to a close at 42-7 in favor of the Red Devils.

Even though this last game did not end the way the Bulldogs wished, Kilcrease is still impressed with the amount of heart the team has and the amount of effort put into each game.

“We had a good season. We were returning 18 out of 22 starters, so we were really young,” Kilcrease said.

“I think the highlight of the season was the McKenzie game. We’re excited about next year, and we’re appreciative of our seniors and what they did. We’re ready to go to work for next year. We’ll have about 14 or 15 seniors next year, and we’ve already started talking about leadership. State championships and good seasons are won starting now, not necessarily when the season starts. We’re going to try our best to go back to work and be the very best we can be next year.”