FOLEY—Daphne High School’s Trojans broke tradition Thursday night by falling to the Foley Lions in a nationally televised region game that affects the post-season outcome.

But head coach Glenn Vickery said his team would go back to work, intent on winning all the way back to Birmingham and the 6A state championship.

“It’s one of life’s lessons,” he said. “It’s not a perfect world and sometimes your team does not win. It’s a part of life. Now we just have to get back to work.”

Key defensive player Matt Stephens summed it up after the emotional loss.

“Foley has a great team,” he said, shaking off the sadness of losing a hard-fought, extremely physical contest.

“They played; they executed better than we did. But we’ll just use this. We’ll use this for even more motivatio,” he said. “We’ll come back and work harder for next week and every week. We can still go 14-1. We never gave up and we never will.”

Daphne fell behind by a touchdown in the first quarter on a TD pass to Julio Jones.The Trojans rallied, however, and scored on a long drive capped by Aaron Ayers one yard plunge.

Quarterback Coley White later ran 42 yards to take the lead as kicker Justin Koblas made both extra points with Will Stringer holding.

But it was all the DHS offense could muster. The first-team defense, though unscored upon until then, held the No. 5-ranked Lions to their lowest output of the year.

Jones, a former state champion high-jumper, would score again on the leap pass from FHS QB Devin Smith. Chaz Cotrell blocked place kicker Jorge Santo Maria on an extra-point try, but a field goal by the Lions’ kicker was good to mark the two-point difference.