By STEPHEN GLOVER

For the Call

Despite racking up more than 400 yards on offense, the Panthers couldn’t secure a victory, losing to Kirkwood 42-21 last Friday.

Mehlville Senior High head football coach Gary Heyde said he couldn’t remember such a situation ever happening throughout his coaching career.

“We never had that many yards in offense and lost that I can remember,” Heyde told the Call. “With a team like Kirkwood, you can’t miss those kinds of opportunities.”

The Panthers (3-3, 2-2 Suburban West) hammered away early at the Pioneer defense as senior running back Tom-my Gayfield pounded a five-yard touchdown run with 10:52 left in the first quarter.

Gayfield scored again with 3:15 left in the first quarter on a four-yard run, bringing the score to 13-0 after place kicker James Fischer missed the extra point.

“We started off good,” Heyde said.

But the second quarter doomed the Panthers.

Kirkwood scored 14 unanswered points on runs of seven and 24 yards by junior running back Josh Jones.

Mehlville responded with a 72-yard bomb by senior quarterback Ronald Roberts to wide receiver Ryan Carter to give Mehlville a 19-14 lead. Roberts hit senior running back Rodney Heard for the two-point conversion, making it 21-14.

“Ryan had a good game,” Heyde explained. “He could have had a really good night but he dropped a touchdown pass in the third quarter.”

The Panther scoring brigade had ended, however, while the Pioneers kept rolling, stealing the lead by the end of the first half.

Kirkwood tied the game at 21-21 on a 69-yard pass by senior quarterback Matt Krapfl to junior tight end Michael McNeilland.

The Pioneers added another touchdown to head into half-time leading the Panthers 28-21.

“(Kirkwood) had some big plays,” Heyde said. “We ended up going in (halftime) down 28-21 rather than 21-21 or even 21-14.”

The Pioneers then scored 14 unanswered points in the second half, capped by a 57-yard touchdown pass after the Panthers fumbled with less than two minutes left in the game. But Mehlville ran out of opportunities and fell to Kirkwood.

The Panthers play Marquette in a Suburban West Con-ference matchup at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

The Mustangs are riding a three-game win streak after defeating Northwest 14-0 last Friday.

“We need to get back on track,” Heyde said.

“They’ve got a decent football team and we need to start playing better defense. We made a lot of mental mistakes against Kirkwood.”