By Jake Finnen

WATER VALLEY — Water Valley sustained their first loss of the season on Friday as they fell to Winona in a 21-20 contest.

“I am proud of our effort. These are two good football teams and we just have to keep improving. We created some turnovers and so did they. We just need to keep getting better,” Water Valley coach Brad Embry said.

The Tigers opened up the game by drawing first blood after snagging an interception from the Blue Devils offense.

Winona (6-0) capped their offensive drive with an 8-yard touchdown run from quarterback An’darius Coffey.

The Blue Devils (5-1) answered the call with a quick drive that saw Jacob Truss score to tie the game at 7-all.

Water Valley took a lead in the second quarter after quarterback Blayne Clark found Jacob Welch for a touchdown pass.

The Blue Devils carried the 14-7 lead into the locker room at the break, and returned to the field in the third quarter to pile on another score.

Bud Tolbert was the target for Clark’s second touchdown pass of the night, this one for 33-yards to put Water Valley up 20-7 over Winona after a missed extra point.

Winona answered with their own touchdown drive to place the score at 20-14 before an early fourth-quarter fumble by Water Valley handed the Tigers excellent field position.

The turnover transformed into points behind a touchdown by Coffey to give Winona the 21-20 lead.

“We have some great players who made great plays on defense, we just can’t make mistakes against a good team like this,” Embry said.

The mistakes for Water Valley included additional turnovers in the waning minutes of the game that kept the Blue Devils from scoring

Water Valley will travel to Holly Springs for the first Region 2-3A game of the season on Sept. 28