The Charles Henderson Middle School football team traveled to Dothan and won in a consolation game against Carver Magnet School 38-15 to take home the third place price in their conference.

It wasn’t the championship game like they were hoping for, but head coach Will Garner and the Trojans were happy to come away with third place.

The Trojans came out in the first half and played well for the most part, but they also turned the ball over two times. The Trojans entered the locker room at halftime holding a 16-8 lead over Carver.

“That week that we had off helped us out a lot,” Garner said. “We were able to put some new stuff in, but it took us a while to get the guys back into the game mode. Once they realized that the other team wanted to win just as bad as we did, we snapped back into it and played a much better second half.”

The Trojans came out and scored on the opening drive of the ballgame when Pooka Jones connected with Sean McKinney on a long touchdown pass to put Charles Henderson up early.

After Charles Henderson connected on the two-point conversion to put them up 8-0, Carver answered back and scored a touchdown, making the two-point conversion to tie the game up at eight a-piece.

Fullback Ben Myhand ran for a 50-yard touchdown to increase the lead to 16-8 before the two teams headed into halftime.

In the second half, the Trojans received big touchdowns by Jones, who scored twice in the half and Cortez Lee to put the game out of reach and giving the Trojans the win.

A couple weeks in, when the post season didn’t shake out the way they planned, the Trojans took it upon themselves to come into Tuesday’s game angry and to prove that they belonged in the championship game.

“The guys played really well,” Garner said. “All we really wanted to do was prove a point to ourselves and everybody else that we felt like we should be playing in the championship game. The way the rules worked out, it didn’t work, but we wanted our guys to know that we were the best team in the league. We wanted to go out there and win.”

The Trojans finished with the second best record in the league but could not advance to the championship game because it featured the top team from each division.

“When we got done playing I explained to them that we know that we should be playing in this next game coming up,” Garner said. “I told the seventh graders to look around at who was playing, and I said it is our goal to be playing in the championship game next year.”

The Trojans came into this season without a lot of experience and knowledge of the game of football, but as the season progressed, each player matured and grew into an experienced football player that was able to help their team be so successful.

“The maturity and growth of these kids have been unbelievable,” Garner said. “We showed them that we care about them, and they started to show that they cared about us. All that turned into wins, hard work and effort.”

The seventh graders were able to get first-hand knowledge on what it is going to take to be successful as a football player within the Charles Henderson program.

“The seventh grade class finally got a taste of what it is like to win,” Garner said. “They also know what it is like to work hard. I anticipate these guys are ready to get back into the weight room and to get back into spring practice. They want to be able to taste what we had this year and even more.”

The eighth graders will leave the middle school team and move on to bigger and better things within the JV or even varsity programs. The coaching staffs for both the varsity and junior varsity teams are excited with what this class may bring in the future.

“The whole town and varsity coaches know that this class that we have coming up has a chance to be a special group,” Garner said. “We have about 30 guys playing together right now, and they have every piece that it takes to win a championship down the road.”