The Albert Lea football team was unable to notch the Homecoming victory over Tri-City United Friday night. Despite only trailing by five points late in the second quarter, the Tigers were overcome by the passing offense of the Titans as they fell, 40-8.

The Titans got the scoring started right away in the game after they returned the opening kickoff to the endzone and took a 7-0 lead.

After a turnover deep in their own territory, the Tigers gave up their second score of the game. This time it was a short pass that would lead to a score and the Titans jumping out to a 13-0 lead after a missed extra point.

Albert Lea gained a bit of momentum when senior quarterback Alex Goodmanson threw a touchdown pass to Garret Paczkowski to cut into the Titan lead. After a two-point conversion attempt ran in by sophomore running back J.J. Owens, the Tigers only trailed 13-8.

Owens has been finding himself thrust into the offensive gameplan more and more over the past weeks and is sure to see more time as he provides a different style of running that other defenses aren’t used to, according to head coach Corey Black.

A stalled drive by the Tigers would end in a punt attempt from their own endzone. The Titans were barely able to get a couple fingers on the punt, but nonetheless were able to cover the ball deep in Tiger territory. The Titans capitalized on the good field position and added another eight points to their total after a short pass and two-point conversion.

TCU scored once more before halftime on yet another pass to make the score 28-8 at the break.

Albert Lea’s defense faired a little better in the second half as they only allowed two more touchdowns in the game. The offense, however, was unable to gather the momentum needed to find the endzone for the remainder of play.

Despite the loss, Black was focusing on the positives he saw in the team Friday.

“When we moved the ball on offense it was because we were truly executing,” he said. “It showed that when we take control of the things that we can and execute then we’re very effective. We just have to keep putting ourselves in position to where we know we can execute.”

The Tigers fall to 0-6 on the season and will play in their home finale on Friday when they take on the Trojans of Worthington.