Paris wasn’t able to go any further on Friday night.

Paris at North Shelby Photo Gallery

The Coyotes’ 8-man football season ended with a 56-28 Class 1 District 8 championship game loss to North Shelby in Shelbyville after four failed fourth down attempts led to four touchdowns for the Raiders. Paris closed with its first winning football season since 2015, which was a year the Coyotes were still an 11-man program and the previous one that they appeared in a district title game.

After senior Gatlin Fountain ran for a seven-yard touchdown, Paris (7-4) took a 20-16 lead with 2:50 left in the first half. North Shelby (7-4) took it from there by outscoring the Coyotes 42-6, with running back Gannon Bowen accounting for five touchdowns and quarterback Jade Daniel accounting for four touchdowns. Head coach Cody Carney said the Raiders got on a roll.

“They started getting rolling on offense a little bit,” Carney said. “They made some adjustments on defense and really shut down our ground game so we had to take it to the air a little bit more.”

Luke Ensor, who finished with 232 yards on 18-for-33 passing, and Paris seemed to have its aerial offense working early as each of its first two touchdowns went for more than 30 yards. Brad Skinner caught a 38-yard pass and then Payden Crain turned a short pass into a 37-yard touchdown to help Paris equal the 14 points it scored in the 52-14 loss in its first trip this season to Shelbyville. Crain finished with 70 yards on five catches and Skinner had 68 yards on four catches.

The Coyotes appeared to be in good shape to have a decent night following a week they broke their scoring record with an 86-46 victory over Schuyler County at home. However, North Shelby limited them to six points in the second half, 44 rushing yards and ultimately was responsible for Paris’ two lowest scoring games of the season.

“They did a good job taking away our outsides and taking away our counters,” Carney said. “A lot of those fourth downs were close. They came in there and brought some blitzes at the right time.”

North Shelby took advantage of three short fields after failed fourth down attempts by Paris. The Coyotes took the ball to North Shelby’s 28 on one such drive, but a penalty took away a touchdown and then an incompletion brought the drive to a halt.

Paris had five-first half turnovers that put them behind in the first meeting, but staying behind the sticks this time had a big effect on the game this time. Carney said those downs are crucial with a shorter 80-yard field between goal lines in 8-man football.

“Every possession is super important,” Carney said. “You take a team like that that can ground and pound and control the clock and then you can’t get the ball in the end zone on your possession. You might miss one or two, but when you start missing more than that, that’s when the game gets away from you.”

On top of Paris being forced into more passing plays, its main target Logan Mitchell was taken out early in the game after banging his wrist. Even though the Coyotes didn’t have him most of the time, several stepped up to make key catches to extend drives.

Skinner and Crain each did their part but so did the seniors in the final games of their careers. Reid Ragsdale and Brady Shivers were involved in some plays, and Cole Dowell snapped the Paris scoring drought with about nine minutes left in the fourth quarter on a 19-yard touchdown catch for Ensor’s third touchdown pass.

“Our tight ends do a good job,” Carney said. “We had other guys that had to step up and try to get some things working, which obviously took us out of some of my game plan on what we were looking to do.”

Carney said this season was among his best as a head coach in what was his second year leading Paris into the realm of 8-man football. He said his players had a fun year as well, and that showed in the emotional moments after the game.

During the Coyotes’ postgame chat on the field, each senior stood up and told their teammates what they enjoyed about this season. The shared part of their answers involved being one of that particular group of players to have the most fun they’ve had in their careers.

“We had a good group of seniors and a lot of juniors and sophomores that stepped up and played a lot of important roles and supportive roles this year,” Carney said. “The seniors, they definitely took it upon themselves since they had goals they wanted to hit. They had a lot of selflessness as we spread the ball around quite a bit.”

Carney said it is now up to the returning players to keep progressing the program, and the Coyotes can put themselves in a good position at the start of next season like they did this year.

“One of the biggest things was we had every kid in a weights class last year so they’ve been lifting for a full year,” Carney said. “That makes a big difference when you’re out here in the game of football. I hope that our young guys get back in there and get to work, and hopefully, they can be even stronger for next year.”