A series of close losses continued Thursday night for the Henry County Patriots’ middle school football team.

Martin Middle School came to Paris to pull out a 44-38 win over the Patriots at Barton Field. Henry County slips to 1-4 on the season.

Henry County will travel to Obion County for a 6:30 p.m. game Thursday.

“Our kids played really hard against Martin. Their running backs hurt us late in the game. The close losses are hard. All we can do is just keep working. The kids are getting better, and we are playing good football,” said Patriot head coach Benji Bona.

Patriot Cole Townsend had more than 350 all-purpose yards in the game. He ran a kickoff back 70 yards while having three more long touchdown runs.

 that were in the 65-to-70 yards range.

Part of the reason the Patriots could break Townsend free on the outside was some strong inside running back Brian Pacheco at fullback. The Patriot offensive line did a good job blocking for both runners.

“Brian had been playing center and doing a really good job with his line calls for us, but we needed somebody like him at fullback, and he had a great game there,” said Bona.

Bona said Ian Bradley and Hunter McElroy continue to shine on defense for the Patriots.

“We can see that they are getting better and working hard in practice every week. All we can ask of them is to give us a chance to win, and they are doing that every game,” said Bona.

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