The Pleasant Home Eagles picked up a big 34-20 win over the McKenzie Tigers on Friday night in McKenzie.

“The defense played very well tonight,” Pleasant Home head coach Rick Mercer said. “We turned the ball over four or five times on offense, but the defense was able to shut them down.”

Pleasant Home quarterback Jon Cooley had a big game for the Eagles with more than 100 yards rushing and two touchdowns.

“I just thought the defense played extremely well tonight,” Mercer said. “Raymond Mauldin had a big touchdown on a punt return and that was a big momentum shift. The defense really played well as a unit. Overall, I was proud of the offense as well. They made some big plays for us tonight.”

The Eagles were clicking on offense, despite turning the ball over several times.

“We’ve got to do a better job holding onto the football,” Mercer said. “Other than the turnovers, I thought the offense played a pretty good game. We had over 400 yards of offense and they made some big plays. Jon Cooley had a tremendous game for us tonight. He rushed for over 100 yards and we had a few other guys that played really tonight.”

Mercer said that the team competed the way he felt they should tonight.

“We came in a with a good game plan for what we thought McKenzie was going to try to do and the kids executed it very well,” Mercer said. “It’s always exciting to get a win and it makes the other games a little better. A couple of plays here and there and we could be 3-1 right now instead of 1-3. Now we get ready for a Satsuma next week for their homecoming. We aren’t going down there to beat a homecoming victory, we are going down there to win the game.”

Pleasant Home also got a score from Josh Hawkins.

Pleasant Home returns to action next week against Class 5A Satsuma.