The Marengo High Panthers lost their first home game of the season Friday night as they fell to the Fruitdale Pirates 35-16, bringing their overall record to 0-4.

Fruitdale returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown, and it was down hill from there for the Panthers, as they failed to score in the first half. At the end of the first quarter, Fruitdale led 21-0. They added a touchdown in the second quarter to make the score 28-0 at halftime.

That score held through the third quarter until Jatevin Horn took the ball 52 yards for a touchdown run with 7:57 to go in the game and converted the two-point conversion to bring the score to 28-8. Fruitdale responded on the next drive and made it before Horn made another long scoring run, this time from 65 yards out to make it 35-16.

Marengo head coach Dredrick Bell said the youth of his team really showed during the game.

“We are a really young team,” he said. “We have a few seventh and eighth graders, a couple juniors and two seniors who never played before this year. We didn╒t compete early in the game, and we came out in the second half and competed better.”

The Panthers have homecoming next week against Akron High School.