By STEPHEN GLOVER
For the Call
If there’s one good thing about the Mehlville Senior High School football team’s 33-24 loss to Marquette Friday, it has to be that the regular season has ended.
The Panthers (0-7, 0-5 Suburban West) had two punts blocked in the first quarter, which led to a 14-0 lead for Marquette as the Mustangs handed Mehlville a 33-24 loss.
“We had two blocked punts in the first quarter and that set up two touchdowns for them,” Mehlville head coach Gary Heyde told the Call. “It was 21-0 in the second quarter.”
Despite being down 21-0, the Panthers responded with an outstanding 105-yard interception for a touchdown by senior defensive back Roderic Heard.
“He made a nice play on the interception,” Heyde said. “I’d never seen an in-terception like that in high school football, so that was nice to see.”
The Panthers brought the score to 21-14 in the second half when senior running back Jeremy Doss scored on a short-yardage touchdown run.
“Jeremy’s a tough runner that’s been a good running back all year long,” Heyde said. “He’s pretty good on those short yardage plays.”
A field goal by sophomore place kicker Glen Grimm brought the score to 28-17.
“Glen’s been doing a good job for us,” Heyde said. “He made all of his extra points and the one field goal.”
The Panthers scored again in the fourth quarter on a short-yardage touchdown by Doss, but that would be their final points of the night.
However, the slate is clean for the Pan-thers as they enter the District No. 1 tournament at 7 p.m. Friday at Fox High School. The Fox Warriors are 4-3 overall and are coming off a 35-0 win over DeSoto last Friday.
“They (Fox) have been having some success this season, and they’re a tough and hard-nosed team,” Heyde said. “They have a good running back in (Jon) Hend-ricks, and we’re going to have to play tough defense, which we didn’t do last week.”