In a battle of winless teams Friday night in Monroeville, the Monroe County Tigers picked up their first win of the season as they dropped W.S. Neal 30-20 on the Tigers’ homecoming.

With the win, W.S. Neal’s record falls to 0-6 overall and to 0-4 in region play.

The win for Monroe County was just their third in three seasons while W.S. Neal remains winless since a win in week five last season over Calhoun.

Also, with the loss, the Eagles remain winless in the region. Their last region win was in 2007 a overtime victory over T.R. Miller in the Battle of Murder Creek 14-8.

“Well, in the second half, we didn’t play very well,” W.S. Neal head coach Kevin Jordan said. “We gave up two long passes and got beat on defense and that cost us two touchdowns right there. We could not get a big stop in the second half when we needed one. Offensively, we moved the ball well at times, but we shot ourselves in the foot with penalties. I don’t know how many we had, but it was way too many. We will go back and get back to work and get ready for next week.”

W.S. Neal struck first holding Monroe County on four downs to start the game as the Eagles scored on their sixth play from scrimmage to lead 7-0 with 6:42 left in the first quarter.

Monroe County would score 18 points in the second quarter with the biggest points of the game coming as W.S. Neal led 14-12 with 2:07 left before halftime.

On a fourth down, a bad snap over the punters head gave Monroe County the ball at the Eagles 20-yard line and needed only two plays to take an 18-14 lead into the locker rooms at halftime.

“That was a huge play,” Jordan said. “A huge play. We are ahead in the game right there and it was a big momentum swing because we are ahead and we are punting to them and it is less than a minute to go and they are going to get the ball inside their own 20-yard line with less than a minute to go and they will probably run the ball and the clock out. We snap the ball over the punter’s head and that is two weeks in a row we have done that. It turns into a negative play and they punch the ball in deep down there and we are down at the half.

“That was a huge play, no doubt about it.”

Monroe County would later hold a 24-14 lead with 5:45 left in the third quarter and take a 30-14 lead with 7:31 left in the game.

W.S. Neal would get as close as 30-20 with 6:53 left and get the onside kick but failed to score.

The Eagles had one more chance to cut into the lead, but an interception sealed the win for Monroe County by 10.

W.S. Neal racked up 215 total yards with 72 on the ground and 143 in the air while Monroe County had 305 total yards with 208 rushing and 97 passing.

Hunter Mullins led in rushing with 48 yards on 11 carries and one touchdown.

Dylan Godwin was 14-of-29 passing for 143 yards and two touchdowns and two interceptions.

Jeffrey McMillan was the leading receiver with 54 yards on four catches on one touchdown.

W.S. Neal will be back in action next week at home for their homecoming against B.C. Rain.