The Mehlville Senior High School football team lost two players to injury, and the game, to Fort Zumwalt West 14-8 Friday night.

Starting quarterback Brendan Moore, a junior — who suffered a knee injury — and junior Patrick Partee left the game with injuries in the first half.

Mehlville head coach Eric Meyer told the Call after the game he was not yet sure how serious Moore’s injury was.

“He hurt is knee, but we don’t know. He might be back, but we don’t know,” he said. “We’ll wait until Tuesday (after the Call went to press) and we’ll figure it out.”

Joe Murphy, a junior, took over the quarterback role after Moore left the game.

Partee, who carried the ball in on a two-point conversion after the Panthers’ only touchdown of the game by Kirkland Burton, suffered an arm injury.

While the severity of the injuries is yet to be determined, the impact could be far reaching if one or both players do not return, as both a crucial part of a Panthers’ team that could be on the cusp of a dominating season.

Meyer told the Call weather played a role in the game’s outcome, but clarified that it was only one of the factors in the contest.

“Yeah it was, but what are you going to do? It’s raining? We play in those conditions,” he said. “We played OK in spurts, we just made too many mistakes … We fumbled the ball too much.

“The offensive line did a really good job, and we just turned it over too much and we got some injuries. But the kids played hard and you’ve got to take care of the ball … That’s part of the game.”

Meyer said he was still proud his players and how they reacted to the situation.

“The kids played hard, we had two kids injured in the first half and the kids came back and battled their tails off,” he said.

As the 1-1 Panthers get ready take on a tough Eureka team Friday night, they will have to focus on what is ahead of them.

“You’ve got to. You got Eureka who’s ready to come out and play. You can’t cry. You can’t concentrate on those things,” Meyer said. “You’ve got to worry about the things that you can do, and we just have to have other guys step up and make plays.

“We just have to pick it up, and we’re just going to have to expect a little bit more out of some other guys that maybe weren’t playing as big of roles before, now they’re going to have to step up and play better.”