The James Buchanan Rocket football team thought they got off to a good start Friday night at Perryville, Md., but that quickly vanished.
The Rockets recovered an onside kick to open the game, but turned the ball over on their first play from scrimmage and it was all downhill from there.
The Panthers scored 34 straight points before JB could find the end zone and went onto a lopsided 54-8 loss.
“We saw some things on film that we thought we could get the onside kick,” JB coach David Miller said. “We got the recovery and on our first play we got 6 or 7 yards, but we fumbled, they recovered and rolled from there. You could see that really sparked their kids.”
Perryville (2-2) scored 3 TDs in the opening quarter and 4 in the second quarter, including the 2 interception returns for scores.
“We made a lot of mistakes,” Miller said. “They were bigger than us up front, but I thought we were quicker. The ended up being more physical than us.”
The lone TD for JB (1-3) came in the second quarter when QB Sebastian Wise connected with Brady Bigler, who had 3 catches for 86 yards, for a 44-yard score. Cormac Houpt ran in the 2-point conversion.
“Midway through the third quarter we put some of our younger players in and they did well,” Miller said. “Some of the younger players showed us some things and some of them will get a few more reps this week.”
The Rockets host Clear Spring (Md.) this Friday their Homecoming game. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.