The first three quarters and the fourth quarter were two completely different stories for the Mehlville Senior High School football team Friday night.
Despite holding the Kirkwood Pioneers to a 6-6 tie in the first half, the Panthers gave up 27 points in the second half in a 33-12 loss.
“It was a good football game,” Mehlville head coach Gary Heyde told the Call. “We made some mental mistakes that cost us the game and you just can’t do that because Kirkwood’s a good football team.”
Kirkwood jumped out to a 3-0 lead midway through the first quarter on a 24-yard field goal by Kris Turek. But the Panthers tied the game at 3-3 on a 29-yard field goal by senior place-kicker Glenn Grimm with 47 seconds left in the quarter.
Grimm gave the Panthers a 6-3 lead with 2:53 left in the second quarter on a 28-yard field goal — his fourth of the season.
Kirkwood’s Turek tied the game at 6-6 with 10 seconds remaining in the first half with a 34-yard field goal of his own. The Pioneers struck again early in the third quarter on a 12-yard touchdown pass from Michael Harris to Jaz Granderson with 9:10 left in the quarter.
Mehlville’s Tyrone Clark tied the game at 12-12 on a 10-yard touchdown run with 6:24 left in the third quarter. But a missed extra point after Clark’s touchdown kept the Panthers from taking a 13-12 lead.
“Glenn’s been pretty solid for us,” Heyde said. “He’s been doing a pretty good job out there, so it was surprising that he missed the extra point.”
Clark carried the ball eight times for 35-yards and a touchdown.
“We ran a quick count and he scored on a sweep play,” Heyde said. “He’s been playing real well for us on both sides of the ball.”
But Kirkwood’s Harris nailed his second touchdown of the game on a five-yard pass to Dello Davis with 1:59 left in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, Davis struck again for the Pioneers on a 75-yard touchdown run with 10:23 left in the game.
“There were opportunities for us to score, but that long touchdown kind of broke our back,” Heyde said.
The Granderson-Harris connection brought the game to 33-12 on a 17-yard touchdown pass with 47 seconds left.
The Panthers are back in action at 7 p.m. Friday when they play host to Marquette (1-4, 0-3 Suburban West). Marquette is coming off a 47-14 loss at home to Oakville in which the Tigers sacked Mustang quarterbacks Eric Phillips and Kevin Adams a total of six times.
“They’ve struggled a bit lately and were ahead of Kirkwood 7-0 before Kirkwood took control of the game,” Heyde said. “Marquette’s got some good players, so we have to come out and play consistent. We need to improve this week because if you don’t in this league, you’re going to get beat.”
