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The South Middle School Trojans lost to the South Lincoln Eagles 40-30 at home Tuesday for their third loss of the season.

The Trojans fell behind by more than 20 points in the first half with a late offensive surge not being enough to overcome the early deficit in the homecoming contest.

South head football coach Jermaine Johnson said that his team turned in a disappointing performance overall, but a bright spot emerged in the play of the Trojans’ backups after they were brought in during the second half.

“Our JV, our future, is bright. They came in and gave us the spark that we needed and that we were missing. We kind of came back there at the end but just ran out time,” he said before later referring to what he felt was a low-energy start for his team. “It’s on me. I’ll take full responsibility for that. We’ve got to get these guys excited to be here, work for each other, play for each other and work hard the whole game. That’s where we’re lacking right now.”

The Eagles returned the opening kickoff to South’s 23-yard line and scored on a passing touchdown a few plays later to take an 8-0 lead less than a minute into the game.

The Trojans drove inside of South Lincoln’s 10-yard line on their first possession, but the drive stalled from there and ended in a turnover on downs.

The Eagles then drove all the way down the field and scored a rushing touchdown with six minutes left in the first half to make it a 16-0 game.

The next drive for the Trojans ended in an interception, and the Eagles scored another touchdown through the air a few minutes later to put the deficit at 24-0 with 3:39 to go in the half.

The Trojans broke through for their first score with 1:49 remaining in the second quarter as quarterback Levi Lindsey connected with Brennan Taylor on a touchdown pass. Lindsey followed by shoveling a pass to Kaveon Sutton for a successful two-point conversion to cut the lead down to 24-8.

The Eagles added one more score just before the halftime break as another passing touchdown with 48 seconds left in the second quarter pushed the deficit back up to 24 points.

The Trojans trailed 32-8 at halftime.

The Eagles went for an onside kick to open the second half and recovered the kick to start the third quarter with the ball.

The ensuing drive for South Lincoln resulted in a rushing touchdown to bring the deficit up to 40-8 with five minutes left in the third quarter.

Bentley Baldwin then entered the game at quarterback for the Trojans and quickly threw a passing touchdown as he completed a swing pass to Jacoba Fells who took the ball the rest of the way for a score. Baldwin found Sutton in the end zone on the ensuing two-point conversion to make it a 40-16 game.

After the Trojans forced a turnover on downs at midfield, Baldwin and Taylor connected on a passing touchdown to put the score at 40-22 with 4:30 remaining.

A successful onside kick gave the ball right back to South, and the Trojans capitalized with Baldwin throwing a passing touchdown to Sutton a few plays later. Taylor ran the ball into the end zone on the two-point conversion as the score was placed at 40-30 with 3:36 to go.

However, the Eagles recovered the next onside-kick attempt by the Trojans and ran out the clock from there to give South the loss by 10.

With the loss, the Trojans moved to 3-3 on the season.

They will next play Tuesday at home against Moore County Middle School. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.