By Justin Fedich | The Selma Times-Journal

R.B. Hudson fell one win short of perfection.

The Bulldogs entered Tuesday’s game against Demopolis seeking a win to complete the school’s third perfect football season. Instead, it was the Tigers (7-0-1) who left Memorial Stadium with a 36-14 win and without a loss on their record. R.B. Hudson (7-1) had no answer for a Demopolis rushing attack that totaled 145 yards and five touchdowns

While R.B. Hudson head coach Eugene Foster didn’t get the result he had hoped, he believes his team has learned a valuable lesson this season.

“They’ll learn that we have to move on from this and stay positive and just learn that it was a good game tonight.

They stayed in it and they played hard,” Foster said.

R.B. Hudson’s defense came out strong, forcing a turnover on downs before Demopolis could get a first down.

The Bulldogs gave the ball right back, however, with a fumble on just their second play from scrimmage. The Tigers took advantage, capping an 8-play drive with a Tyler Gamble 4-yard rushing touchdown with 1:33 left in the first quarter.

“We’re a running team, and we knew how explosive their offense was going to be, so it was very important that we just keep the ball away from them as long as possible,” said Demopolis head coach Jeremy Silcox.

Frederick Haywood ran in the two-point conversion to give Demopolis an 8-0 lead.

After Bulldogs’ quarterback Tyreshon Freeman tossed an interception to Tigers’ defender Myles Jones, R.B. Hudson was in danger of going down two touchdowns.

The Bulldogs’ defense held, forcing a three-and-out. Nicholas Parnell took over at quarterback, but he spent much of the next drive running.

Parnell ripped off rushes of 8, 14, 15 and 8 yards before connecting with Freeman on a 20-yard touchdown pass that was deflected right into Freeman’s hands. R.B. Hudson trailed 8-6 with 1:47 left in the first half.

Demopolis answered before the half, making use of its timeouts and finishing the final drive of the first half with a Haywood 7-yard touchdown to take a 14-6 lead at halftime.

After an R.B. Hudson three-and-out to open the second half, Demopolis had good field position at the Bulldogs’ 25-yard line. Horne Browne III recovered a fumble to give R.B. Hudson another drive, but Freeman tossed an interception to Juan McClain that was returned to the Bulldogs’ 9-yard line.

McClain ran a 5-yard touchdown two plays later and Gamble ran in the two-point conversion to give Demopolis a 22-6 lead with 3:36 remaining in the third quarter.

After falling behind 30-6, the Bulldogs responded with a Freeman 8-yard rushing touchdown. Freeman hit Parnell for a two-point conversion to lower the deficit to 30-14 with 5:18 left in the fourth quarter.

McClain ran his third touchdown of the half to give the Tigers a 36-14 win.

“We played a very good team,” Silcox said.

“This is an outstanding team that’s coached really well, and we just look at the teams we play and that was a very quality Selma team that we played today.”

Foster is proud of his eighth graders for the fight they showed all season, and he knows he will have a very new team next season with less than 10 seventh graders on the roster.

“Next year we’re going to try to rebuild for the first time,” Foster said.