Panthers come close to first win

The Saratoga High School football team went to Pine Bluffs to try and get their first win of the young season. A valiant effort was put forth said head coach Logan Wright but, in the end, the Panther team came up on the losing side.

"Pine Bluffs got two touchdowns back-to-back in the 1st quarter but, after that our defense kept them scoreless the rest of the 2nd quarter," Wright said. "We scored in the 2nd quarter and we were down to Pine Bluff's five yard just before the half was over."

Wright said that the Hornet's defense responded well to the Panthers' attempt to score just before half-time.

"It was a little disappointing not to have gone into the half without a score, when we were so close," Wright said. "Still I felt we had momentum going for us."

The Panthers went in the 3rd quarter strong, making some good plays and keeping Pine Bluffs scoreless.

"I felt we were wearing them down," Wright said. "We are physical team and when we scored in the 3rd quarter, I felt good about our chances of taking the lead."

The Panthers did not score on the conversion, but were down only 1 point.

"We kept fighting and we had some exciting moments," Wright said. "Unfortunately we had some penalties that hurt us at the wrong time. Noah Rimmer had a 40 yard run taken back because of a holding call. That took some wind out of our sails."

Wright said the game against Moorcroft the week before had the Panthers make many more errors.

"We had way less penalties than the week before," Wright said. "The team really improved in that area compared to the week before. It is just unfortunate that the penalties we did get, cost us."

The Hornets did score at the end of the third quarter. The Panthers were now down by nine points.

"We didn't give up," Wright said. "It wasn't long into the fourth quarter that we scored and the game was tight again."

The Hornets responded and scored again and the chance for the Panthers to get ahead slowly evaporated.

The Hornets beat the Panthers 18-34.

"The score doesn't really indicate how close we were to taking the game. Just like when we played Moorcroft last week, the score doesn't really tell how well we played," Wright said. "Mistakes hurt us and maybe cost us the game, but we did play well."

Rimmer had a rushing touchdown and a receiving touchdown. Gaven Bartlett had a 40 yard run too.

"Teegan Love and Deke Herring had key interceptions but, in the end , penalties hurt us as we tried to stay in the game," Wright said.

Wright said the team will fix the obvious problems.

"We know what needs to be improved on and these boys can do it," Wright said. "We still are in the playoff hunt and the boys are having fun playing. We will make the adjustments that need to be done, I have no doubt about that."

The scheduled varsity game is against the Riverside Rebels at 1 p.m. on September 26 in Riverside.