Members of Pleasant Home’s junior varsity football team woke up with smiles on their faces Wednesday morning.

They had good reason because on the night before, the Eagles beat Florala 24-16 to win their first regular-season game since 2010.

“They were really excited,” PHS JV football coach Troy Turman said. “That was the first JV win — from what I’ve been told by former coaches — in four years.”

Turman put it into perspective when the last time the JV squad picked up a win.

Some of this year’s seniors played on the team then; it was Tanner Veasey and Jon Cole Chesser’s year, the coach said.

During the win the other night, the Wildcats drew first blood in the opening quarter as they took a 8-0 lead.

The Eagles then drove the field on a good drive, getting some first downs and found the end zone to tie it at 8-all.

In the second quarter, the Eagles put together a couple defensive stops, a fumble recovery and started getting some more first downs on offense.

Pleasant Home’s Mason Kelley scored a rushing touchdown and got the 2-point conversion to give the Eagles a 16-8 advantage.

Right before halftime, the Eagles tacked on another TD after an exchange of turnovers.

“We got the ball back and we stalled out and punted back to them,” Turman said. “They had one or two plays left with time. We then stripped the ball from them and Robert Scott took the ball 50 yards and scored.”

By that point, PHS led 24-8 at halftime.

Florala scored again in the third quarter to cut it to eight, and for the rest of the game, nobody could get anything going on offense, Turman said.

“At the very end, we hung on with two defensive stands,” he said. “We stopped them with two minutes left, and on the very next play we fumbled, and stopped them again.”

After punting with time dwindling down, the Eagles iced the game with 6 seconds left with an interception.

“It was exciting to get a win,” Turman said. “We haven’t had one in a long time. I’m happy for the kids, they’re working hard.

“We’re working hard across the board in every sport to develop a winning mentality,” he said.