The Pleasant Home Eagles gave it their best effort in their first region game of the season, but it wasn’t enough as the McKenzie Tigers came away with a 56-33 win Friday night in Pleasant Home.

“We just couldn’t tackle No. 3 (Chris Shufford),” Pleasant Home head coach Chris Mason said. “He ran all over the place tonight. They really didn’t have to do anything else.”

McKenzie jumped out front early in the contest, but the Eagles never quit and piled on points late.

“There at the end of the game we started passing the ball and executing our plays,” Mason said. “When they are stacking eight guys in the box, they are just daring you to throw the ball. Once we were able to start passing, they had to back out of the box.”

Mason said that even though it was a loss, he was proud of the way his guys played.

“Our kids never quit playing,” Mason said. “We finished the game strong, and I was encouraged by that. Anytime you can finish the game strong it helps up set up a better week at practice the following week. We got after it for three quarters tonight, but we just forgot that first one.”

D.J. Worley led the way for the Eagles with 146 yards rushing and two touchdowns.

Robert Scott added 140 yards passing and one rushing touchdown.

Joe Gibbs and Garrett Barton each rushed for one touchdown.

“We have four people scoring,” Mason said. “That shows we have guys that can make plays. We still have some wins in us this year. We are improved, but now we just have to show it.”

Josh Ruth led the Eagles with 11 tackles.

“Our safety led the team in tackles, so that shows you that they were getting through our line,” Mason said. “We are going to be fine. We just have to start executing and playing in the first quarter.”

Pleasant Home will host Brantley next week at home.

“We have a completely different team to get ready for next week,” Mason said. “This was a running team this week, and next week we will have to go up against Brantley’s passing attack.”