SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. – The Shelbyville Central Golden Eaglettes (0-8, 0-5) held the program’s first-ever Senior Night against Boyd Christian (9-5), falling in a heartbreaker, 19-18, on Friday.

After the program was announced back in February, there was never any expectation that the Eaglettes would field a flag football team for 2026. However, that quickly changed, and despite the record, Derrick Reese’s squad has shown plenty of potential in year one.

“This was extremely special,” Reese said about Senior Night postgame, “We weren’t even going to play a home game this season. The plan was to have Senior Night at a soccer game, but Boyd happened to have an opening, so we squeezed them in. To be able to have that moment, to play on this field in front of our own fans for our first home night, this was extremely special.”

Boyd Christian scored first, reaching the end zone on a pass from Cydney Perry to Brooke Kesey for her ninth receiving touchdown of the year with 2:50 left in the first quarter. The conversion attempt was no good, and the Broncos held a 6-0 lead.

After an Eaglettes three-and-out, the Broncos again found Kesey for her 10th receiving touchdown of the season on a four-yard touchdown pass. After the conversion was no good, Boyd Christian held a 12-0 lead with 8:10 left in the first half.

The Eaglettes were finally able to generate some offense, finding a long catch-and-run completion to Lailah Alexander. Then, after a short Kyler Doak carry, Alyssa Hedge made a sensational contested catch, managing to stay on her feet long enough to cross the goal line for Shelbyville Central’s first touchdown. Lorelai Beeman’s pass on the conversion attempt fell incomplete, and the deficit remained 12-6 with just under five minutes left in the first half.

On the Broncos’ ensuing possession, Sandrea Lopez made a sensational interception on fourth down, returning it all the way to the 7-yard line. The Eaglettes scored on the very next play when Beeman’s option pitch allowed Hedge to reach the edge and scamper into the end zone to tie the game. After the conversion was no good, the score remained tied at 12-12 heading into the halftime locker room.

In the third quarter, Shelbyville Central forced a three-and-out resulting in a Boyd Christian punt. The Eaglettes began their first possession of the second half on the Broncos’ side of the field needing just 30 yards to take the lead. Kyler Doak ran for a first down, and then on 4th-and-goal from the 17-yard line, Beeman fired a pass downfield that found the waiting arms of Lopez. Lopez managed to stay on her feet and sprint into the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown and give the Eaglettes their first lead of the night. After the conversion was no good, Shelbyville Central led 18-12 with 4:30 to go in the third quarter.

Boyd Christian got all the way down to the Eaglettes’ 9-yard line where they faced 4th-and-goal, but the hosts came away with the defensive stand after pulling Kesey’s flag at the 4-yard line. 

The Broncos forced another punt, but on their own possession, Doak made the biggest play of the day defensively up to that point, forcing a hurried incompletion on 4th-and-1 with less than eight minutes to go. 

The Eaglettes were again forced to punt, this time with 4:45 to go, but MG Marshall’s excellent boot gave the Broncos the ball deep in their own territory. After an illegal forward pass from Perry, the Broncos shocked the home crowd with a jump-ball catch-and-run touchdown pass to Kesey. Kesey made the catch down the right sideline and galloped away from the Eaglettes’ defense to tie the game up at 18-18 with the conversion attempt still to come.

Following a Boyd timeout, the Broncos found Kesey on a short pass in the end zone to take the lead for good, 19-18, with 2:00 to go in the fourth quarter.

After Beeman was sacked for the first time all game, her heave down the field was intercepted off of a deflection to seal the game for the visiting Broncos, 19-18.

“We have only been playing together for nine weeks,” Reese said about the last 2+ months, “Coach Dryden and I were talking in February about having a season, then two days after I was hired, we were hosting tryouts. We’re only talking about nine weeks that we’ve been playing, total. From the time of learning what a line of scrimmage is, we literally had to learn every single thing. Then we had to get past the basics, because we had to get into plays and how the game has to be played. Getting past the basics was a little difficult at first, but to be able to see the growth that this group has had in this short amount of time, it’s huge. I can only imagine what the next few years are going to look like.”

Even after a difficult loss in what will be their lone home game of 2026, the Eaglettes head coach had some words to say about his two seniors – MG Marshall and Kena Dotson.

“Neither senior needed the sport,” he said, “Both of them are going on to play different sports in college – MG [Marshall] at Bryan for soccer and Kena [Dotson] is wrestling at a college in Michigan. Neither of them were here for initial tryouts.”

“I’ll never forget the first conversation MG ever had with me was ‘Coach, am I going to get any playing time? Do I even need to be out here? Because I don’t want to waste your time and my time.’ I looked at her and said, ‘Senior or not, playing time is based on you.’”

“She could have taken that one of two ways,” Reese said, “but the competitive side in her took over a little bit, because by the next practice, there was no reason to take her off the field. Now, I laugh about her comment of not wanting to waste my time because I don’t think she would have wasted anybody’s time.”

“Kena is a very bright young girl, she’s a very good wrestler, and she pays attention to details,” he continued, “She did start for Senior Night, but overall she understands her role and that she’s not going to be on the field as much as some of the other girls, but there is still a lot that you can take from that. She puts forth as much effort on the field as everyone else, and she’s really smart situationally. She’s extremely dependable, and she does what she has to do.”

Shelbyville Central travels to Rockvale on Tuesday with a scheduled start time of 6:00 p.m.