Two fights, the ejection of two football players and the short end of a 31-0 score at the hands of the Hoover Bucs wasn&8217;t the way the Thompson Warriors wanted their season to end Friday night.

Still Thompson head football coach Brian Maner could hardly contain the emotion as he expressed the pride he had in his team, which finished the 2006 season with a record of 8-4 and having reached the second round of the 6A state playoffs.

&8220;Our kids played extremely hard and had great senior leadership, and they did a great job … I&8217;m proud of them, our coaches are proud of them, and they should be proud of each other.&8221;

But early miscues hurt the Warriors.

Thompson was in business at the visitor&8217;s 28-yad line. But the Bucs&8217; defense would not break.

To make matters worse, on fourth down and 10 yards to go at the Hoover 14, the Warriors fumbled the snap on an attempted field goal.

The Bucs took over at their own 16-yard line and made the Warriors pay for their failed scoring attempt.

Moments later Hoover&8217;s Dennis King broke lose for a 42-yard touchdown run on the way to a 21-0 halftime lead.

Things would not get much better for Thompson. Following an interception by Hoover and ensuing scuffle, the Warriors&8217; Marcus Edwards was ejected from the game.

Later, following the tackle of the Hoover quarterback out of bounds the Warriors lost a second player, Chris Johnson to ejection.

Maner acknowledged the loss of players hurt in a game. But he said others have to step up.

The second half proved uneventful, but the Warriors could not get on the scoreboard.

The Bucs held the Warriors to 53 yards rushing and 31 yards passing for 84 yards of total offense.

The Bucs ground out 256 yards of rushing and passed for 97 more to amass 353 yards total offense.

Maner said, &8220;(At the) Beginning of the game, you need everything to go your way when your playing a good football team,&8221; He said his team missed some early opportunities he thought would have helped with momentum.

The Warriors will lose 33 seniors from this year&8217;s squad. About next year, Maner said, &8220;we&8217;ll get started to work Monday.&8221;