Despite a last-minute rally, the Charles Henderson Middle School fell to Dauphin Junior High 28-24 in a battle of unbeaten teams.

I hate it for the guys,” said Trojan head coach Will Garner. “They put in so much work to get where they are. The fight and effort they showed, as a team is unbelievable. As a coach that is all I could ask for. I was really proud of the guys the way they stayed in the game.”

After a late touchdown by Derrian Williams on a long touchdown run, the Trojans had narrowed the game to within four points of Dauphin. The Trojans lined up for an onside kick and recovered the football giving them back possession with just under 2 minutes remaining in the football game.

The Trojans were able to drive the ball down the field before a couple of penalties sent Charles Henderson in the wrong direction. With time running out, the Trojans had an opportunity to score from one yard but were stopped by Dauphin at the last minute.

“It says so much about our team,” Garner said. “It shows the amount of character these kids have and that the team has. They came out and hit us in the mouth. Our guys came to the sideline, knew what happened and went out there and kept fighting and battling. The effort was really there tonight.”

The Trojans had other scoring plays by quarterback Pooka Jones who connected on a touchdown pass to Sean McKinney. Jay Williams had a touchdown run and Malcolm Hall returned a kick off for a touchdown as well on the night.

After starting the season 5-0 and surrendering an average of six points a contest this was the first time all season long the Trojans were tested on the field.

Tuesday night’s contest could very well be a preview of the championship in a couple of weeks. Both teams came into the contest undefeated. With the win the Dauphin now has the inside track to host the championship if they win out.

The Trojans will now hit the practice field after facing their first set back of the season. They will have one week to forget about and learn from their first loss of the season.

“They are hurting right now,” Garner said.

“They wanted to finish the season undefeated really bad. These boys know that there are bigger things down the road. We will not have a problem getting them focused and ready to play. You could see it in their eyes after the ball game, that fire was lit a little bit more after that loss.

Even though the Trojans will be looking forward to their rematch with Dauphin, they will not look past D.A. Smith next week.

“We are not going to look ahead to that, we are going to worry about D.A. Smith next week,” Garner said. “We are going to treat it like it’s a normal game week.”

Kickoff is at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.