Friday night’s 17-7 loss to DeSmet was not how Eric Meyer wanted to start his career as head football coach at Mehlville Senior High School.

The Panthers (0-1) gave up 17 points in the second quarter as they sputtered throughout most of the game against DeSmet (1-0).

“Defensively, we played very well,” Meyer said. “We didn’t give them much to be honest. We just got down 17-0 and couldn’t recover. We botched a snap and fumbled the ball, which gave them good field position.”

DeSmet jumped out to a 7-0 lead when Devin King scored on a one-yard touchdown run with slightly more than six minutes left in the second quarter.

The Spartans scored again with just less than two minutes left in the first half when Chris Boldt nailed a 17-yard field goal.

DeSmet’s second touchdown came with 20 seconds remaining in the first half when quarterback Stephen Kaiser nailed a three-yard touchdown pass to Kenny McClendon for a 17-0 lead.

Mehlville’s lone touchdown came in the fourth quarter when quarterback Anthony Townsend hit Darron Perkins with a 30-yard pass with roughly four minutes remaining. Townsend completed three of 10 passes for 47 yards, one fumble and one touchdown.

“He (Townsend) was a little limp and still fighting an ankle injury,” Meyer said. “DeSmet put a lot of pressure up front and we just couldn’t find a way to attack them.”

The Panthers are back in action at 7 p.m. Friday when they play host to Oakville in what should be another heated rivalry game between the two sister schools.

Mehlville hammered the Tigers 42-7 last year en route to an appearance in the Class 6 state championship game.

“I think that for right now, our defense needs to keep playing as well as they did against DeSmet,” Meyer said. “What we really need though is to get our offense going.”