The Gold-Burg Bears lost their opening game of the season on Thursday night at Perrin-Whitt.
The Pirates seemed to stun the Bears, winning by mercy rule 46-0 early in the third quarter.
Gold-Burg came into the game with confidence. The Bears had blown out Perrin-Whitt the previous season 64-16. Despite graduating some foundational players from that team, enough of the core remained for the feeling to be that the result would be similar enough.
It started from the kickoff as Gold-Burg got the ball deep in its own territory. The Bears’ attempts to move the ball were muted and they were stopped on fourth down at their own 22 yard line.
Gold-Burg’s defense was doing an admirable early job of trying to make the Pirates earn it by bottling up sweeps near its goal line.
Unfortunately, a bust in coverage on a play-action rollout left someone wide open for a nine-yard touchdown pass. Perrin-Whitt made the extra point and led 8-0.
The Bears next offensive possession saw their most explosive play of the game happen as Jayton Epperson connected with Keelyn Case on a juggling contested catch near the Pirates’ goal line.
Unfortunately, the Gold-Burg offense stalled out after four downs and turned the ball over to Perrin-Whitt, backed up at its own nine yard-line.
The Pirates got some rhythm going running the football with sweeps and counters to the outside as they marched down the field. Eventually, Perrin-Whitt’s running back got lose on the sideline for a 19-yard touchdown to go up 16-0.
Right as everything seemed to be going horribly wrong for the Bears as the first quarter winded down, it was punctuated by the Pirates recovering the ensuing onside kick to get the ball back and assistant coach Seth McMinn getting stung by a wasp on his finger.
The second quarter was not any better. Perrin-Whitt quickly scored as momentum and fatigue seemed to be getting to Gold-Burg’s defense. The Pirates scored on a nine-yard run to go up 24-0.
Despite a good kick-off return for the Bears, the next drive was stalled out near midfield as Gold-Burg just could not get much of anything going.
Perrin-Whitt then had its most explosive play of the game so far as its running back got loose for a 34-yard run to go up 32-0.
As the game went on, several Bear players started to go down with injuries, serious enough to be out the rest of the game, especially considering how it was going.
The Bears responded with their best drive of the game as they methodically drove down the field, mixing in tough running with some short passes that kept the chains moving which had been a struggle all game.
Driving down near the Pirates goal line, unfortunately Gold-Burg’s offense stalled out again. Perrin-Whitt’s defense forced another turnover on downs, but the Pirates were truly backed up.
A penalty backed up Perrin-Whitt a little more and the Bears were a bit more aggressive trying to force a negative play.
The Pirates responded with a quick pass that the receiver took the rest of the way, with a teammate out in front to block, for a 74-yard touchdown pass. Perrin-Whitt led 40-0.
With less than two minutes left before halftime, Gold-Burg knew it was the last chance it had to try and score.
With the Pirates getting the ball after halftime and the defense not being able to get a stop so far in the game, the end of the game was in the hands of the Bears offense to try and prevent this game from ending.
Gold-Burg frantically moved the ball down the field to give itself a chance, with some big plays from Paul Jones and Zander Crawford along with quarterback Levi Hellinger when he connected with Paul Allen.
Unfortunately, the Bears ran out of time before halftime.
The second half saw the Pirates receive the kickoff and Gold-Burg came out with a lot of energy from its players that the game could still be turned around with a stop from its defense.
The Bears defense stifled the sweeps that had killed them in the second quarter, but Perrin-Whitt still drove to Gold-Burg’s 15 yard line.
On a pass play the Bears defense had covered well, the Pirate player scrambled from one side of the field to the other before finding room to score on a 15-yard touchdown run that ended the game.
Perrin-Whitt won 46-0.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News. To see more pictures from the game, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6865525&T=1